NEWS FROM THE WORLD

HIGHER INTEREST RATES NOW?

2010-04-11T03:52:00.000-07:00

As prospects for the U.S. economy brighten, consumers are about to face a new financial burden: a sustained period of rising interest rates.

That, economists say, is the inevitable outcome of the nation's ballooning debt and the renewed prospect of inflation as the economy recovers from the recession.

The shift is sure to shock consumers whose spending habits were shaped by a historic 30-year decline in the cost of borrowing.

"Americans have assumed the roller coaster goes one way," said Bill Gross, whose investment firm, Pimco, has taken part in a broad sell-off of government debt, which has pushed up interest rates. "It's been a great thrill as rates descended, but now we face an extended climb."

The impact of higher rates is likely to be felt first in the housing market, which has recently begun to rebound. The rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage has risen half a point since December, hitting 5.31 last week, the highest since last summer.

Along with the sell-off in bonds, the Federal Reserve has halted its emergency $1.25 trillion program to buy mortgage debt, placing more upward pressure on rates.

"Mortgage rates are unlikely to go lower than they are now, and if they go higher, we're likely to see a reversal of the gains in the housing market," said Christopher Mayer, a professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School. "It's a really big risk."

Each 1 percent increase in rates adds up to 19 percent to the total cost of a home, according to Mayer.

The Mortgage Bankers Association expects the rise to continue, with the 30-year mortgage rate going to 5.5 percent by late summer and as high as 6 percent by the end of the year.

Another area in which higher rates are likely to affect consumers is credit-card use. Last week, the Federal Reserve reported the average interest rate on credit cards reached 14.26 percent in February, the highest since 2001. That is up from 12.03 percent when rates bottomed out in the fourth quarter of 2008, a jump that amounts to about $200 a year in additional interest payments for the typical U.S. household.

With losses from credit-card defaults rising and with capital to back credit cards harder to come by, issuers are likely to increase rates to 16 or 17 percent by the fall, said Dennis Moroney, a research director at the TowerGroup, a financial-research company.

Similarly, many car loans have become significantly more expensive, with rates at auto-finance companies rising to 4.72 percent in February from 3.26 percent in December, according to the Federal Reserve.

The federal government, too, is expecting to have to pay more to borrow. The Office of Management and Budget expects the rate on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note to remain close to 3.9 percent for the rest of the year, but then rise to 4.5 percent in 2011 and 5 percent in 2012.

The long decline in interest rates also helped prop up the stock market; lower rates for investments such as bonds make stocks more attractive.

That tail wind, which prevented even worse economic pain during the recession, has ceased, according to economists, analysts and money managers.

"We've had almost a 30-year rally," said David Wyss of Standard & Poor's. "That's come to an end."

CHRISTIAN BROTHERS PEDOPHILIA

2010-02-19T10:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks God, in the recent past we assisted the largest scandal inside the Roman Catholic Church. The biggest scandal hit the so-called "the pedophile club", the Christian Brothers, a catholic institution born in Ireland. The financial trick to avoid the payment of huge money to the victims of pedophilia made by priests was the follow: selling to trusts or vatican-related institutions all the properties, to avoid the total loss of the christian brothers properties and assets (schools becoming universities or offices). So, the vatican is strictly implicated in this dirty story of abuses. Here you can find some information taken from google:

Pedophile catholic priests

christian brothers pedophile house of horrors

christain brothers abuses: thousands beaten, raped

christian brothers sex abuse is on wikipedia!!!

christian brothers pedophiles on amazon!!!

pedophiles in the church

christian brothers clergy pedophilia scandal

Schumacher & Mercedes?

2009-12-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

Formula One team Mercedes GP said Wednesday they will reveal the identity of their second driver at the start of 2010 with rumours rife it is set to be seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher.

"We have already recruited the excellent driver Nico Rosberg and we will know at the start of the year who his team-mate wil be," Dieter Zetsche, boss of car manufacturer Daimler which owns Mercedes, told website motor-sport.com.

"We want to see the best drivers in our cars.

"To see Nico Rosberg in our team is a good thing.

"It is certainly a big attraction to have at least one German driver under contract."

The German press here is full of speculation the next Mercedes driver named will be Schumacher, three and a half years after he retired in 2006, who will turn 41 on January 3.

With 91 Grand Prix wins to his name, Schumacher's signature would be a huge boost to the new team which was known as Brawn last season.

The German nearly returned to Formula One in the summer with his former team Ferrari, but a neck injury prevented him from racing.

IL DECRETO PISANU: UNA MEGA TRUFFA A DANNO DEI CONSUMATORI

2009-12-12T05:32:00.000-08:00

Le compagnie telefoniche saranno sicuramente preoccupate dalla scadenza del decreto Pisanu in scadenza alla fine di quest' anno. Il perchè è facile da capire: in un momento critico per l'economia mondiale, in un mondo ormai digitalizzato, dove l'informazione dovrebbe viaggiare quasi gratis e alla velocità della luce, qualcuno vuole difendere i propri interessi. Questo qualcuno sono le aziende che vendono l'accesso ad internet. Per capirci meglio faccio un esempio: secondo il decreto Pisanu ogni utente che si allaccia ad internet deve essere identificato. Ok dico io, basterebbe l'IP, ovvero il codice univoco che distingue ogni pc del mondo (anche se si può navigare in modalità anonima). Con la ridicola scusa del terrorismo, a casa tua devi per forza vincolare l'accesso al tuo wi-fi con id e password, e se qualcuno commette un reato tramite la tua rete il responsabile sei tu, non chi ha commesso il reato e non è rintracciabile. Ebbene, chi ci guadagna?. Ovviamente le compagnie telefoniche, che non hanno alcun interesse affinchè le reti aperte si sviluppino. Immaginate di avere un normalissimo iphone con skype in uso, e di camminare in una qualsiasi città dove i proprietari di wi-fi settano l'accesso in modalità aperta, in modo che chiunque possa connettersi ad internet. Se dovete telefonare cosa fate, una normale telefonata o usate skype? Usate skype, ovviamente. Ad una normalissima vodafone station si potrebbero connettere gli utenti di passaggio, o la signora che al piano di sotto aspetta il suo turno dal dentista e controlla la posta dallo smartphone, o chiama il figlio a casa per sapere se va tutto bene. Gli interessi in ballo sono enormi, quello che ci stupisce è che tali decreti vengano da un governo che ha fatto dell'apertura verso il futuro la sua bandiera. Quindi, caro Pisanu, cerchi di vietare e colpire la navigazione anonima invece di fare il portaborse delle compagnie telefoniche. Grazie

White House state dinner party crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi

2009-11-27T02:06:00.000-08:00

PIGGYBACKING, list snooping, fake press passes ... when it comes to gate-crashing, New York City party planners have seen it all.

But they are shocked - shocked! - that uninvited guests got past the Secret Service.

"I was blown away. I can't understand how they did it," said Chuck Garelick, who works to keep crashers away from top parties and events like the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show as a vice president for Elite Investigations.

"I just had to shake my head when I saw the news," said Garelick. "The Secret Service! That's the organization everybody holds themselves to."

"How did they get in?" asked New York publicist Peggy Siegal, who keeps her exclusive, private movie screenings off-limits to D-listers. "If your name isn't on the list, you don't get in."

Garelick said that his staff often catches crashers posing as journalists, or teaming up to peek at the guest list and then tweet names so friends can confidently greet them at the door.

But he had a different theory about the pair who sailed into the White House uninvited: "They might have piggybacked in with someone," he said. That entails waiting for a top celeb to show, and as the cameras are flashing and the entourage milling about, slipping in right behind them.

Notorious New York City party crasher and photographer Selma Fonseca, who piggybacked behind Gwyneth Paltrow into the Vanity Fair Oscars Party and slipped into the $7,500-a-seat Met Costume Institute Gala, said she couldn't help giving props to the couple.

"You've gotta have nerves of steel. I think it's fun that they did that. I thought it was great," said Fonseca, who runs the Celebrity Vibe photo agency and has snapped photos of herself at off-limits events with nearly 1,000 celebrities.

"I thought it was really pretty thrilling, I have to say," said painter Richard Osterweil, a consummate crasher who managed to sneak into Liza Minelli's wedding
..

Obama directs $12 billion to community colleges

2009-07-14T16:36:00.000-07:00

President Obama announced plans Tuesday for an unprecedented $12 billion federal investment in community colleges over the next 10 years.

Speaking at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich., where displaced workers have been flocking for retraining, he set the goal of an additional 5 million people earning associate’s degrees and certificates by 2020. To assist community colleges, his “American Graduation Initiative” would:

• Create a community college “challenge fund” – competitive grants to foster innovative partnerships among colleges, businesses, workforce investment systems, and high schools.

• Fund promising approaches to help community college students reach graduation and secure good jobs, and establish a research center to measure the colleges’ success.

• Modernize community college facilities through funding that could pay the interest on bonds or seed capital campaigns.

• Create a new online skills laboratory: The US Departments of Defense, Education, and Labor would collaborate with community colleges to offer free online courses, in part to expand opportunities for working adults and rural students.

The president’s proposal is “hugely significant,” says Carol Lincoln, national director of Achieving the Dream, an initiative coordinated by MDC Inc. in Chapel Hill, N.C., to improve completion rates at community colleges. “Community colleges have not been given the resources they need to do the job we expect them to do, and this is going to be a tremendous boost.”

Mr. Obama compared this investment in the 21st-century workforce to the “transformative” moments when land-grant colleges were established under President Lincoln and when the original GI Bill “ushered in an era of unprecedented prosperity.” He positioned community colleges as an “undervalued asset” that could help the US return to being the country with the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020.

Community colleges have done well in expanding access and enrollment, but now, Ms. Lincoln says, “we need to have a stronger focus on making sure that students … really get to the certificates and degrees … that are needed in a competitive workforce.”

The challenge grants could help spread approaches that community colleges in the Achieving the Dream network have tested.

Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap, Va., for instance, found that students with borderline placement scores needed a quick brush-up on math rather than intensive remediation. It placed them in accelerated remedial courses and they passed at a rate of 60 percent, compared with 27 percent in traditional remedial classes.

Many students who start in remedial courses never make it to the stage of earning credits. And nearly half of community college students don’t complete their intended certificate or degree within six years.

House Education and Labor Committee chairman, Rep. George Miller (D) of California, announced plans to introduce the president’s proposal on Wednesday as part of legislation to make college more affordable. To pay for such initiatives, Obama and congressional leaders hope to save tens of billions of dollars by reforming the student loan system to remove subsidies paid to banks and private lenders.

In the meantime, community colleges in states such as California and Florida are having to turn away people or cope with overcrowded classrooms.

“Displaced workers … or even students whose parents can no longer afford to send them to four-year university, all of them are converging on community colleges at the same time states are cutting back funding,” says George Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges. He hopes states will use some of their stimulus money to ease the crunch while colleges await the influx of support the president has proposed.

House Health Plan Outlines Higher Taxes on Rich

2009-07-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

House Democratic leaders took a big step toward guaranteeing health insurance for most Americans on Tuesday as they introduced a bill that would expand coverage, rein in the growth of Medicare and raise taxes on high-income people. Three House committees announced plans to begin voting on the measure this week.

After months of setbacks and uncertainty, House Democrats were jubilant as they unveiled their proposal to achieve a goal that has eluded presidents for six decades.

As of mid-afternoon, House Democratic leaders were still waiting for a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

President Obama, in a statement, praised what he termed “unprecedented cooperation to produce a health care reform proposal that will lower costs, provide better care for patients, and ensure fair treatment of consumers by the insurance industry.”

Republicans have asserted that the bill would raise taxes for millions of middle-income families. But Democrats said their proposal, which calls for a new surcharge or surtax, would affect “only 1.2 percent of all households in the United States.”

The surtax would apply at graduated rates ranging from 1 percent to 5.4 percent to families with annual adjusted gross incomes of more than $350,000 and individuals making more than $280,000.

Starting in 2011, a family making $500,000 would have to pay $1,500 of additional tax to help subsidize coverage for the uninsured. A family making $1 million would have to contribute $9,000. These taxes would rise significantly in 2013 if the federal government did not achieve specified savings in Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs.

On the other side of the Capitol, after more than three weeks of work, the Senate health committee was poised to become the first panel to approve comprehensive health legislation. But the Senate Finance Committee is still hunting for ways to pay for it all, and the chairman of the committee does not have the bipartisan support he has been seeking for months.

The House bill would create a new government-run health plan, starting in 2013, and would require employers to help pay for coverage of their workers.

An employer who does not provide health insurance to workers would generally have to pay a fee or penalty to the government equal to 8 percent of their wages, but there would be exceptions. For example, an employer with a payroll less than $250,000 a year would not have to pay any fee and could obtain tax credits to help defray the cost of coverage for its employees.

The fee or penalty would be equal to 2 percent of wages for a company with a payroll of $250,000 to $300,000; 4 percent of wages for an employer with payroll of $300,000 to $350,000; and 6 percent of wages for businesses with payroll of $350,000 to $400,000.

In a new report, the Congressional Budget Office said that such “pay-or-play requirements” could reduce the hiring of low-wage workers.

“Employees largely bear the cost of health insurance,” budget office said. But, it added, employers cannot reduce wages for workers receiving the minimum wage, “a play-or-pay provision could reduce the hiring of low-wage workers.”

Roche's Tarceva extends lung cancer survival

2009-07-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

Roche Holding AG's (ROG.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Tarceva cancer drug improved the survival of patients with advanced lung cancer when used immediately after initial chemotherapy, the Swiss group said on Monday.

The news helps the position of Tarceva, which is co-marketed by U.S. biotech company OSI Pharmaceuticals (OSIP.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) against Eli Lilly's (LLY.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Alimta and supports filing for approval in the United States and European Union, analysts said.

"Detailed data are not yet available, but delivering an overall survivial benefit is well ahead of expectations, and in our view negates a significant competitive disadvantage to Alimta," said JP Morgan analyst Geoff Meacham.

Roche stock fell 0.2 percent to 145.10 Swiss francs by 1340 GMT, versus a 0.4 percent rise in the DJ Stoxx European health care index, and OSI shares rose 6.3 percent. Eli Lilly fell 1.4 percent.

Treating patients immediately following first-line chemotherapy versus waiting for the cancer to grow or spread before giving additional treatment represents a new approach in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Roche said.

Data from a late stage study called SATURN showed Tarceva met a key secondary target, showing a statistically significant improvement in overall survival. Full data will be presented at a lung cancer conference in San Francisco, which starts July 31.

"We have made no changes to our estimates, but this new data reinforces our view of Tarceva's approval and commercial potential," Sal Oppenheim analysts said.

Tarceva is already approved to treat pancreatic cancer in the United States and EU.

Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide with 1.5 million new cases annually and NSCLC accounts for almost 85 percent of all lung cancers, it said.

Republican pundits open fire on Sarah Palin

2009-07-13T08:08:00.001-07:00

Since announcing her resignation, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been pummeled by critics who have called her incoherent, a quitter, a joke and a "political train wreck."

And those were fellow Republicans talking.

Palin has been a polarizing figure from the moment she stepped off the tundra into the bright lights last summer as John McCain's surprise vice presidential running mate. Some of that hostility could be expected, given the hyper-partisanship of today's politics.

What is remarkable is the contempt Palin has engendered within her own party and the fact that so many of her GOP detractors are willing, even eager, to express it publicly -- even with Palin an early front-runner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Some admit their preference that she stay in Alaska and forget about any national ambitions.

"I am of the strong opinion that, at present day, she is not ready to be the leading voice of the GOP," said Todd Harris, a party strategist who likened Palin to the hopelessly dated "Miami Vice" -- something once cool that people regard years later with puzzlement and laughter. "It's not even that she hasn't paid her dues. I personally don't think she's ready to be commander in chief."

Others suggest a delayed response to last year's shaky campaign performance, now that the race is over and Republicans feel free to speak their minds.

"I can't tell you one thing she brought to the ticket," said Stuart K. Spencer, who has been advising GOP candidates for more than 40 years. "McCain wanted to shock and surprise people, and he did -- in a bad way."

It is more than cruel sport, this picking apart of Alaska's departing chief executive. The sniping reflects a serious split within the Republican Party between its professional ranks and some of its most ardent followers, which threatens not only to undermine Palin's White House ambitions -- if, indeed, she harbors them -- but to complicate the party's search for a way back to power in Washington.

Consider a USA Today/Gallup poll released last week. About 7 in 10 Republicans said they would be likely to vote for Palin if she ran for president. Other surveys place Palin in a statistical dead heat with Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, the former governors of Massachusetts and Arkansas, respectively, who sought the White House in 2008 and give every indication that they will try again in 2012.

Although any presidential poll taken this far out has to be taken with a sea's worth of salt, that is not the reason so many Republican strategists and party insiders dismiss Palin.

"People at the grass roots see a charismatic personality who is popular with other people at the grass roots. But their horizon only goes so far as people who think like them," said Mike Murphy. The veteran GOP ad man eviscerated Palin -- a "political train wreck," "an awful choice" for vice president, her resignation an "astonishing self-immolation" -- in a column published Thursday in the New York Daily News.

"Professional operatives keep their eye on a broader horizon and understand, without independents and swing voters, she can't win," Murphy said. "She's a stone-cold loser in a general election."

That, of course, is debatable and subject to any number of developments over the next few years. A Palin spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.

In an interview Sunday in the Washington Times, Palin said she planned to write a book and campaign for candidates nationwide, regardless of party affiliation, who shared her views on limited government, national defense and energy independence.

But the reaction to her resignation from Republican candidates around the country has been telling. Asked if they planned to invite Palin to visit and campaign on their behalf, several of those facing tough races -- the ones who need to do more than turn out the party faithful or collect their contributions -- were not rushing out the welcome mat.

"I don't generally need people from outside my district to do a fundraiser," Rep. Frank R. Wolf, a Republican from the Democratic-leaning suburbs of northern Virginia, told the Hill newspaper.

"There's others that I would have come in and campaign, and most of them would be my colleagues in the House," Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) said in the same piece.

Whatever one thinks of Palin, there is no question she has been subjected to a level of internal sniping -- friendly fire seems like a misnomer -- that is extraordinary.

The Republican criticism of Palin, 45, began during McCain's presidential run, privately at first, then breaking into the open during the last troubled days of the Arizona senator's campaign. Finger-pointing and back-stabbing are hardly unusual in politics, especially on the losing side. But like so many things Palin-related -- the crowds, the adoration, the antipathy -- the verbal strafing seems of a whole other magnitude. (How many other losing vice presidential candidates would merit a 10,000-word exegesis in Vanity Fair, which depicted Alaska's governor as a narcissistic, one-woman demolition derby?)

Some blame sexism, though again there is sharp disagreement between Palin's supporters and detractors. Some think the former beauty queen has always been hurt by her looks, whereas others think her appearance has helped her considerably. "If Sarah Palin looked like Golda Meir, would we even be talking about her today?" Murphy asked.

Others see a knee-jerk reaction from the political establishment, which will always frown on any populist outsider (think Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, Howard Dean), much less a governor who quits midterm and shows up on TV in hip waders.

"The fact that she is a woman who's extremely attractive and dynamic and charismatic throws them for a loop," said Bay Buchanan, who strategized for her brother's two insurgent presidential campaigns. "Once they sense the first little sign of weakness, that's when they go in for the kill."

No one knows where the future will take Palin, not even the governor herself. Her reemergence on the national scene and the scathing response from so many of her party peers underscore one thing, however: Republicans may hold dear their memories of the late Ronald Reagan. But his famous 11th commandment -- "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican" -- was laid to rest a long time ago.

Bernard Madoff sentenced to maximum 150 years in prison for vast fraud

2009-06-29T10:55:00.001-07:00

Historic swindler Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison Monday for a fraud so extensive that the judge said he needed to send a symbolic message to potential imitators and to victims who demanded harsh punishment.

Scattered applause and whoops broke out in the crowded Manhattan courtroom after U.S. District Judge Denny Chin issued the maximum sentence to the 71-year-old defendant, who said he lives "in a tormented state now, knowing all the pain and suffering I've created."

Chin rejected a request by Madoff's lawyer for leniency and said he disagreed that victims of the fraud were seeking mob vengeance.

"Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of manipulation of the system is not just a bloodless crime that takes place on paper, but one instead that takes a staggering toll," Chin said.

The judge said the estimate that Madoff has cost his victims more than $13 billion was conservative because it did not include money from feeder funds.

"Objectively speaking, the fraud here was staggering," he said.

Chin announced the sentence with Madoff standing at the defense table, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and a tie, and looking thinner than his last court appearance in March. He gave no noticeable reaction when the sentence was announced.

He also showed no emotion earlier in the hearing as he listened to nine victims spend nearly an hour describing their despair. Some openly wept. Others raised their voices in anger.

"Life has been a living hell. It feels like the nightmare we can't wake from," said Carla Hirshhorn.

"He stole from the rich. He stole from the poor. He stole from the in between. He had no values," said Tom Fitzmaurice. "He cheated his victims out of their money so he and his wife Ruth could live a life of luxury beyond belief."

Dominic Ambrosino called it an "indescribably heinous crime" and urged a long prison sentence so "will know he is imprisoned in much the same way he imprisoned us and others."

He added: "In a sense, I would like somebody in the court today to tell me how long is my sentence."

When asked by the judge whether he had anything to say, Madoff slowly stood, leaned forward on the defense table and spoke in a monotone for about 10 minutes. At various times, he referred to his historic fraud as a "problem," "an error of judgment" and "a tragic mistake."

He claimed he and his wife were tormented, saying she "cries herself to sleep every night, knowing all the pain and suffering I have caused," he said. "That's something I live with, as well."

He then finally looked at the victims lining the first row of the gallery.

"I will turn and face you," he said. "I'm sorry. I know that doesn't help you."

Afterward, Ruth Madoff -- often a target of victims' scorn since her husband's arrest -- broke her silence by issuing a statement through her lawyer. She said she, too, had been misled.

"I am embarrassed and ashamed," she said. "Like everyone else, I feel betrayed and confused. The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years."

Prosecutor Lisa Baroni said Madoff deserved a life sentence because he "stole ruthlessly and without remorse."

The jailed Madoff already has taken a severe financial hit: Last week, a judge issued a preliminary $171 billion forfeiture order stripping Madoff of all his personal property, including real estate, investments, and $80 million in assets Ruth Madoff had claimed were hers. The order left her with $2.5 million.

The terms require the Madoffs to sell a $7 million Manhattan apartment where Ruth Madoff still lives. An $11 million estate in Palm Beach, Florida, a $4 million home in Montauk on Long Island, and a $2.2 million boat will be put on the market as well.

Before Madoff became a symbol of Wall Street greed, he earned a reputation as a trusted money manager with a Midas touch. Even as the market fluctuated, clients of his secretive investment advisory business -- from Florida retirees to celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, actor Kevin Bacon and Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax -- for decades enjoyed steady double-digit returns.

But late last year, Madoff made a dramatic confession: Authorities say he pulled his sons aside and told them it was "all just one big lie."

Madoff pleaded guilty in March to securities fraud and other charges, saying he was "deeply sorry and ashamed." He insisted that he acted alone, describing a separate wholesale stock-trading firm run by his sons and brother as honest and legitimate.

Aside from an accountant accused of cooking Madoff's books, no one else has been criminally charged. But the family, including his wife, and brokerage firms who recruited investors have come under intense scrutiny by the FBI, regulators and a court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Madoff's assets.

The trustee and prosecutors have sought to go after assets to compensate thousands of burned victims who have filed claims against Madoff. How much is available to pay them remains unknown, though it's expected to be only a fraction of the astronomical losses associated with the fraud.

The $171 billion forfeiture figure used by prosecutors merely mirrors the amount they estimate that, over decades, "flowed into the principal account to perpetrate the Ponzi scheme." The statements sent to investors showing their accounts were worth as much as $65 billion were fiction.

The investigation has found that in reality, Madoff never made any investments, instead using the money from new investors to pay returns to existing clients -- and to finance a lavish lifestyle for his family.

In bankruptcy filings, Trustee Irving Picard say family members "used customers accounts as though they were their own," putting Madoff's maid, boat captain and house-sitter in Florida on the company payroll and paying nearly $1 million in fees at high-end golf clubs on Long Island and in Florida.

Picard has sought to reclaim ill-gotten gains by freezing Madoff's business bank accounts and selling legitimate portions of his firm. (Its season tickets for the Mets went for $38,100.) He's also sued big money managers and investors for billions of dollars, claiming they were Madoff cronies who also cashed in on the fraud.

The defendants include leading philanthropists Stanley Chais and Jeffry Picower -- from whom Picard is seeking at least $5.1 billion alleged to have come out of victims' pockets -- and hedge fund manager J. Ezra Merkin. All have denied any wrongdoing.

Sanford's mother is praying for him

2009-06-28T02:40:00.000-07:00

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's mother said yesterday that she was praying for her son as pressure mounted for a criminal probe into his secret trip to visit his lover in Argentina. "I love him and support him," Margaret Sanford, 83, said while sitting on a wooden picnic bench outside her home.

After going missing for days, the married father of four admitted Wednesday to a yearlong affair with a woman who lives in Argentina. In a tearful news conference, the two-term Republican asked for forgiveness and explained that a friendship with the woman had blossomed into romance a year ago, around the time of a state-funded trip to South America.

On Thursday, Sanford agreed to reimburse the state for part of the more-than-$8,000 tab for that economic-development trip. Exactly how much he needs to pay back has not yet been determined, Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said yesterday.

Sanofi drug may increase cancer risk, studies find

2009-06-28T02:35:00.001-07:00

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - Sanofi-Aventis's diabetes drug Lantus may increase the risk of cancer, according to European studies involving some 300,000 insulin-treated patients, prompting a call from experts for more research.

The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), which released details online of four studies from its journal Diabetologia, said they were "far from conclusive but they do indicate the need for further investigation of this issue."

The new research was released after mounting speculation that damaging data was about to be published over a cancer link with Sanofi's modern long-acting insulin analog, sinking the the French drugmaker's share price by 12.3 percent in two days.

Lantus, which sold 2.45 billion euros (2.1 billion pounds) in 2008, is a key driver for Sanofi as top drugs like Plavix and Lovenox face the threat of generic competition. Analysts have been expecting sales to grow strongly for the next five years.

A German study of 127,031 diabetics on insulin found malignancies were more common in patients treated with Lantus, also known as glargine, than in those prescribed a comparable dose of old-style human insulin.

"Our analysis does not provide absolute proof that glargine promotes cancer," said Peter Sawicki, director of Germany's Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care and co-author of the study.

"Our study does, however, arouse an urgent suspicion which should have consequences for the treatment of patients."

Following that original German study -- which was presented to the European diabetes journal last year -- further research was carried out using three other large patient databases, or registries, in Sweden, Scotland and the UK.

In the Swedish study, involving 114,841 insulin-treated patients, those on Lantus alone were almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer.

The 49,197-patient Scottish study also found patients on Lantus were more likely to have cancer, including breast cancer, although the difference did not reach statistical significance.

The UK study -- the smallest of the four, involving 10,067 patients -- found no link.

TREATMENT OPTIONS

The EASD said patients should not stop taking treatment but the organization added they could consider using a long-acting human insulin or a mixture of long- and short-acting human insulin twice a day instead of once-daily Lantus.

The EASD said it had already communicated the latest study results to the European Medicines Agency and had started discussions with Sanofi as to how further studies might be conducted to get to the bottom of the issue.

"A large combined analysis of the best available databases worldwide is the best way forward," EASD president Ulf Smith said in a statement.

He added there was no evidence that Lantus actually causes cancer, but it might possibly cause any existing cancer cells to grow and divide more rapidly.

Sanofi said late on Friday it had just been made aware of the latest data and it stood by the safety profile of Lantus, given the extensive evidence from past clinical trials and post-marketing surveillance.

Tim Anderson, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein, said the new research was not alarmist, but it would still likely have a negative impact on Lantus demand.

"As the core driver of Sanofi-Aventis' earnings going forward, this will probably continue to weigh on the stock," he said.

Denmark's Novo Nordisk also has a long-acting insulin analog called Levemir, which is modified in a different way from Lantus. Levemir was launched more recently, however, so was not assessed in the European registry studies.

Iran election aftermath

2009-06-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

BBC Iranian affairs analyst Sadeq Saba looks at the key questions in the wake of the county's bitterly contested presidential election result.

What is the evidence of electoral fraud?

The way the result was announced was very unusual.

Usually, in all previous elections, the vote came in and was announced province by province.

In this case, the results came in blocks of millions of votes - in percentages of the vote.

As these blocks of votes came in, the percentages going to each candidate changed very, very little.

This appears to suggest that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did equally well in rural and urban areas. Conversely, it suggests that the other three losing candidates did equally badly in their home regions and provinces.

This overturns all precedent in Iranian politics. We know Mr Ahmadinejad is very popular in rural areas and unpopular in the big cities.

We also know that in areas where there are regional and national minorities, anti-establishment candidates tend to do very well. Candidates always tend to carry their home provinces. Not this time.

No explanation, despite repeated questions, has been given by the authorities for any of this.

It is all very suspicious. But it does not necessarily mean there has been widespread electoral fraud.

How organised is the opposition to Ahmadinejad?

Mir Hossein Mousavi has no organisation to speak of. Before he declared his candidacy for the presidential elections he had been in semi-retirement for more than 20 years.

However, the three main reformist organisations backed him for this election. He does not lead these groups.

These are highly organised and well supported - they constitute a kind of organised opposition.

They are very popular among the young and among students, and can mobilise thousands using the internet and other means.

I expect protests to continue - the reformist groupings have issued a statement saying there has been a coup d'etat.

Does Iran's Supreme Leader support Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fully?

Iranian politics is opaque, but as far as we can tell Mr Ahmadinejad has the wholehearted backing of the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

IRANIAN ELECTION

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: 62.6%

Mir Hossein Mousavi: 33.8%

Mohsen Rezai: 1.7%

Mehdi Karroubi 0.9%

Turnout: 85% Source: Interior ministry

Before the election, the Supreme Leader repeatedly backed the president, saying he was the best president the country has had since the revolution and his foreign policy was right.

Nothing has happened during the campaign or since the result was announced to suggest a change.

Ayatollah Khamenei was very quick to welcome the result of the vote - though he has since called on the Guardian Council to investigate thoroughly the claims of vote rigging.

Is the Supreme Leader's position or credibility under threat at all?

Ayatollah Khamenei's credibility may be under threat.

A leading and respected cleric, Mohsen Kadivar, has questioned why the Supreme Leader welcomed the election result so quickly, before it had been legally ratified by the Guardian Council.

Ayatollah Khamenei has been widely criticised for being too close to Mr Ahamdinejad. The Supreme Leader is meant to remain above the fray and above factional politics.

What next? Can the confrontation be defused?

The Guardian Council has 10 days to decide whether to ratify the result of the election or to call another vote. It has asked the losing candidates to provide evidence of electoral fraud.

So there are legal means to reverse the situation.

But this would be a massive upheaval and a great defeat for the president and the Supreme Leader - so it's very unlikely.

This said, I can't see the demonstrations dying down. They are more likely to gain momentum and spread as people are angered by the clampdown.

The Supreme Leader is above the law and he may decree a compromise. He may argue that Islam or the country is under threat.

Iranian society is very, very polarised - economically, socially, by gender on religious grounds - and this is what we are seeing. Frankly, this sort of angry protest was to be expected whichever way the election went.

Florida Teen Nabbed For 19 Cat Murders

2009-06-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

A Florida teen was arrested and charged over the weekend in connection with the murder and mutilation of 19 cats in Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay.

Tyler Weinman, 18, faces 19 counts of animal cruelty, 19 counts of improper disposal of animal remains and four counts of burglary, reports CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami. Weinman is being held on $249,500 bail.

The attacks began more than a month ago and cat-owners had been urged recently to keep their pets confined indoors or use fencing to keep the cats in their yards. Residents were also asked to be vigilant for any suspicious activity in the neighborhood.

Weinman was taken into custody Saturday night while he attended a party. Police were still investigating whether he had any accomplices in the alleged attacks.

Microsoft Bing

2009-06-15T07:26:00.001-07:00

Microsoft's Bing may be just a pup in the world of search engines, but big dog Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin, is taking no chances that it will come close to nipping at its heels.

Brin is reportedly leading a group of Google engineers assembled to dissect Bing's algorithms, according to a report in The New York Post.

The co-founder usually does not get directly involved in such operations, which may signal his concerns about Bing, the paper said, quoting an anonymous company source.

"New search engines have come and gone in the past 10 years, but Bing seems to be of particular interest to Sergey," the source told The New York Post.

Not one to show its cards, Google is downplaying any worries it may have that Bing could usurp Google's No.1 spot in the search engine market.

"We always have a team working on improving search," a company told the paper. We dedicate more time and energy to search than anything else in our company. Our algorithm is constantly evolving."

Since its launch two weeks ago, Bing has attracted interest from online users and the media. Last week, Internet traffic tracking firm ComScore said that the new search engine's daily penetration among U.S. searchers was 15.5 percent during the June 2-6 time period, up from 13.8 percent between May 26 and May 30 for Microsoft's earlier generation Live Search. In addition, Bing's share of search engine results climbed to 11.1 percent from 9.1 percent for Live Search during those time periods.

Last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt shot down any concerns that Bing would overtake Google's dominance in the search engine arena.

"It's not the first entry for Microsoft," Schmidt told Fox Business News in an interview last Tuesday. "They do this about once a year. I don't think Bing's arrival has changed what we're doing. We are about search; we're about making things enormously successful, by virtue of innovation."

Bing's early penetration in the search engine market may not necessarily mean that it is a superior service, but could be due to its novelty factor, according to ComScore.

"These initial data suggest that Microsoft Bing has generated early interest, resulting in a spike in search engagement and an immediate-term improvement to Microsoft's position in the search market," said Mike Hurt, senior vice president at ComScore, in a statement.

Porn star recalls nightmare of testing HIV positive

2009-06-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

Porn production shut down for a month after Darren James tested positive in 2004, changing his life. Now he hopes he can protect others by telling his story.

By Rong-Gong Lin II

June 15, 2009

Darren James saw the news flash on his TV screen last week: A porn actress had tested positive for HIV. James, 45, felt a moment of shock, then sadness.

"I feel really bad for this girl," he said. "One thing I can say, I just wish her well. It's the worst thing to get that call."

It's the call James got in 2004 when the well-liked porn star known for his courteous nature on set found himself at the center of an HIV outbreak in the San Fernando Valley's multibillion-dollar porn industry. His diagnosis, and the spread of the virus to three actresses he had worked with, shut down porn production for a month.

He had tested HIV negative just days before performing on screen.

"I predicted it would happen again," he said late last week in an interview at his attorney's Woodland Hills office, his second since his name became public five years ago.

James, dressed in trim black slacks and a fitted black T-shirt that showed off his muscular frame, said he decided to speak out now because he hoped his story would spur the porn industry to require condoms, rarely used in straight porn films.

The latest HIV case in the porn industry became public last week when officials from the San Fernando Valley-based Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation said a female porn performer had tested positive. The acknowledgment came as rumors about a new HIV infection spread on porn websites.

Officials from the clinic, which serves the porn community, have said the woman most recently worked June 5, the day after undergoing tests for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. The medical director, Colin Hamblin, and co-founder, Sharon Mitchell, have given conflicting statements on whether the woman's test results first came back positive June 4 or June 6.

Regardless, clinic officials said the woman should not have worked on June 5 since she had last tested negative April 29, outside the industry's voluntary requirement that performers show negative test results within the last 30 days.

Los Angeles County public health officials said last week that the woman's case, which has not officially been reported to them, would mark the 22nd report of an HIV infection in an adult film performer since 2004.

When he worked as a porn star, James said, he followed the clinic's guidelines closely, paying $100 a month out of his own funds to be tested. The rules, he thought, kept him protected, even as he routinely worked without condoms. If everyone had to test, he reasoned, everyone was safe.

By April 2004, he was at the pinnacle of his career, traveling to foreign countries to shoot films, sometimes working six days a week and two or three scenes a day.

"You're like Superman. Especially with the amount of work that I had? It was nonstop," James said. "I'm thinking, I'm invincible. . . . That's just the way our mentality was. It was, you get the test, you're clean, not realizing that in between the tests, and after the tests, you know, other people, you don't know what they're doing."

The call that changed his life came as James was getting ready to book tickets to Japan for another international shoot. AIM clinic officials told him he was HIV positive. And, he said, they told him they planned to release his name publicly.

He asked them not to -- in part out of concern for his parents who did not know how he made his living -- but they did anyway.

"It was like a hit in the gut," James said. "My whole world stops. . . .Life was pretty much over."

A Detroit native, James said he joined the Navy after high school, working in the construction battalion. When he left the Navy in 1989, he settled in Southern California, attracted by the sunny weather. He planned to pursue a career in law enforcement but struggled to find work.

At times, he was homeless. At one point, he lived at a friend's gym. Then, in 1997, another friend referred him to a modeling gig in the San Fernando Valley, which turned out to be a porn shoot.

Desperate for cash, he performed, the shoot went well, and he was hired for more scenes. In the beginning, he worked as a standby performer without getting credit, making little money. But by 2004 he had loyal fans and was earning a good living. Then he got the HIV diagnosis.

Distraught, James said, he bought a bus ticket to Tijuana, planning to disappear. But the news spread quickly. In Mexico, he saw TV footage with a photo of him smirking as if, he said, he was smirking at the situation.

In Tijuana, James said, he tried to kill himself. After the attempt, he woke up days later in a hospital near San Diego. It took him months to recover, he said. He later found out that his mother learned about his diagnosis, and his porn career, on TV at her church.

In 2005, James sued the AIM clinic and several of its officials, alleging medical negligence and invasion of privacy. His suicide attempt and the turmoil caused by disclosure of his name are among the lawsuit's contentions. James and his attorney said the case settled out of court under terms that they not disclose the amount.

James said he recently started talking to public health officials and young adults about his experiences and is studying to become an HIV counselor. Other than a bad knee and bad back, James said, his health has remained good and his viral count is low.

James, who looks as if he is in his mid-30s rather than his mid-40s, has worked steadily as a security guard since recovering from his suicide attempt. He said his porn past and HIV-positive status have cost him some jobs when he is recognized, but he still wants to speak out. His story, he said, might get the attention of people who could require condom use on porn sets.

"That's why I want to come out and do a little more, if I can. And if it's just to help . . . just to get them to listen. Not to boast up porn, not at all, just to make people be aware that I got caught up, man. I thought I was invincible, and I got shot down so fast. . . . There's some really good people, and they want to change."

Asked whether he felt he was to blame for infecting the three women with whom he had performed, James said: "I don't know what to say on that one. I wish I could just go back and rewind that time. If it was just me and myself in place of them not having it, I would do that. But I can't."

Pharmacy admits it made mistake on supplement given to dead polo ponies

2009-04-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

The head of a Tallahassee-based pharmacy admitted Thursday that it incorrectly mixed a medication that was given to 21 horses that mysteriously collapsed and died before a polo match over the weekend.

Jennifer Beckett, chief operations officer for Franck's Pharmacy, said an internal investigation revealed the strength of an ingredient in the medication was flawed. In a written statement, she did not name the medication or the ingredient involved.

''We will cooperate fully with the authorities as they continue their investigations,'' she wrote. ``Because of the ongoing investigations, we cannot discuss further details about this matter at this time.''

The news came as the politically-connected Venezuelan multimillionaire who owns the 21 horses indicated he suspects his team's own veterinarian may have played a role in the deaths of some of the polo ponies, according to a letter from a Philadelphia lawyer.

In a letter to polo team veterinarian Dr. James Belden, an attorney representing an insurance company says its investigation revealed that Biodyl was administered to 12 ponies prior to their deaths before a match at the International Polo Club Palm Beach on Sunday. Attorney William Gericke wrote that Belden ordered the compound from Franck's Pharmacy in Tallahassee.

''Since you ordered the Biodyl from Franck's Pharmacy that was administered to the horses, I believe there may be a possibility that my client may look to you as a party who has some responsibility for the loss,'' Gericke wrote.

Biodyl, a vitamin supplement that is banned in the United States, emerged as a possible culprit in the deaths when Lechuza Caracas' team captain polo told a Venezuelan newspaper it was administered to the horses.

Belden, who was not immediately available for comment, has said he is one of the team's vets and worked under Argentine team veterinarian Felix Crespo. Crespo is not named in the letter.

State labs, which conducted inconclusive necropsies of the 21 horses, said they are still awaiting results of toxicology tests to determine what caused the deaths. Sarah Carey, a spokeswoman for the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, said she expects results ``very soon.''

Gericke represents an insurance company for Quorum Management, one of several companies owned by Victor Vargas, an oil magnate turned banker who owns two mansions in Palm Beach. The company owns 12 of the horses that died, Gericke said.

In the letter, he asks Belden, who is a team vet for Vargas's Lechuza Caracas polo team, to ``preserve any and all quantities [of Biodyl] so we may have it tested.''

A spokeswoman for the pharmacy wasn't immediately available for comment.

Mark Fagan, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture, which is investigating the deaths, said he was unaware of any investigation by an insurance agency.

Determining whether Biodyl played a role in the horses' deaths is complicated because many of the ingredients in it are also found in legal compounds, he said.

Wildfires Hit Myrtle Beach Area

2009-04-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

Wildfires swept through a coastal region of South Carolina on Thursday and headed for North Myrtle Beach, destroying more than 40 homes and forcing more than 2,500 people to evacuate, state officials said.

Gov. Mark Sanford declared a state of emergency in Horry County, which includes the Myrtle Beach area, and officials of North Myrtle Beach were scrambling to get residents to pack up and flee.

No injuries have been reported since the fire began on Wednesday, but the blaze jumped a state highway and rapidly headed toward a heavily concentrated residential and tourist area, prompting the mass evacuations and the closing of schools and businesses in North Myrtle Beach.

The blaze began along the coast just west of Myrtle Beach around noon on Wednesday and quickly spread, fueled by 25 mile-an-hour winds and extremely low humidity.

“Our public safety department went door to door and we asked everyone to leave,” Mayor Marilyn Hatley of North Myrtle Beach said at a news conference Thursday. “We tried our best to remove everyone as soon as possible.”

Although the blaze has moved quickly along the coast, it stopped just sort of the Intracoastal Waterway separating the mainland from the coastal area, which firefighters were hoping would act as a natural barrier.

“We realized right away that it had huge potential, that it was a very dangerous fire,” said Russell Hubright, a spokesman for the South Carolina Forestry Commission. “The other serious part is that there’s quite a lot of homes in that immediate area there.”

Todd Cartner, a spokesman for the Horry County Fire Rescue, told The Associated Press that the blaze was the worst to hit the area since 1976, when about 30,000 acres, or 47 square miles, burned.

Typically, wildfires claim about 35 homes a year in South Carolina, Mr. Hubright said, adding that the wildfire that began on Wednesday claimed at least 40 homes and damaged another 100 in barely 24 hours.

“This is the worst fire on record as far as loss of homes,” he added.

Mr. Hubright said that fire and forestry officials responded quickly the blaze, and contained about 25 percent of it by late Wednesday, but that the fire burned vigorously overnight, and by Thursday morning containment was below 10 percent.

By early Thursday, officials said that the blaze had engulfed about 15,000 acres.

Many tourists who had been vacationing in the area --known for its golf courses and beaches and which generates about $16 billion a year in business -- were forced to flee. Officials were directing evacuees, including tourists and local residents, to three nearby shelters.

In the meantime, firefighters tried to fence in the flames with tractor plows and a helicopter equipped with a 750-gallon water bucket. But dry and gusty weather conditions that were expected to continue through Thursday were threatening to stoke the flames. Firefighters said they were concerned that the low humidity and strong winds would allow the fire to “spot,” or send out embers as far as a quarter mile away, causing the blaze to spread more quickly.

“When you’re out there trying to contain a fire and you’ve got fire jumping ahead of you, that makes it even more dangerous,” Mr. Hubright said.

Somali pirates attack two more vessels, one seized, another freed

2009-04-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

Somali pirates attacked two more vessels on Saturday in the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa country, seizing a Belgian dredger but thwarted in an attempt to hold a tanker, according to reports monitored here.

A Belgian dredger with 10 crew members on board was hijacked by pirates on Saturday morning, Belgian broadcaster VRT said.

The ship, which is owned by Belgian dredging firms Jan De Nul and DEME, was reportedly missing off the Somali coast. It sounded a silent alarm twice early in the morning, a staff member of the Belgian government's crisis center told the VRT.

Jaak Raes of the crisis center, which is monitoring the situation, said the crew on board the Pompei include two Belgians, one Dutchman and several Croatian and Filipino nationals.

The Pompei first sounded the alarm at around 5:30 a.m. A second distress call was received by coast guards at around 6 a.m.

Later in the day, NATO forces captured seven Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and freed 20 people taken hostages.

A NATO spokesperson said a Dutch warship with NATO mission took actions after the pirates launched an attack on the tanker MTHandytankers Magic.

They chased the pirates fleeing on a small skiff before capturing a Yemeni-flagged fishing dhow taken by the pirates on Sunday as their "mother ship". The Dutch forces freed 20 Yemeni hostages on the dhow.

The incident took place after a U.S. captain who has been held hostage by Somali pirate for five days arrived on Friday at his hometown in Vermont.

After a five-day standoff, the U.S. Navy SEALs killed the three pirates holding Phillips hostage in a lifeboat, and set him free.

Despite an international flotilla, Somali pirates have attacked at least 80 vessels this year, holding at least 16 ships and more than 250 crew members. After a brief lull apparently balking at the increasing presence of foreign warships against piracy, they made a comeback recently extending their attacks to a much larger area in the Indian Ocean, as far as off the Seychelles islands.

For almost two decades, Somalia have been in anarchy since its government was toppled by warlords in 1991, with its people living in chaos and poverty. A transitional government established in 2000 has been too weak to combat piracy stemming from the war-torn soil.

Sarah Palin's Sister-in-Law Arrested for Burglary

2009-04-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

Smoke has yet to settle from the feud between Levi Johnston – the former fiancé of Bristol Palin, who will appear on The Tyra Banks Show April 6 to discuss his sex life with the Alaska governor's 18-year-old daughter – and Sarah Palin, who issued a blistering statement condemning Johnston's decision to talk dirty on TV. (Johnston, 18, and Bristol Palin welcomed son Tripp last December and split earlier this year.)

And now comes a new source of embarrassment for the former GOP vice-presidential contender: police in Sarah Palin's hometown of Wasilla have arrested the half-sister of her husband, Todd, for allegedly breaking into a house in a robbery attempt.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, police say Diana Palin, 35, entered the home Thursday morning and made straight for a bedroom cabinet where cash was stowed. The house had already been burgled twice in recent weeks. This time the owner, carrying a gun, was waiting in a bathroom after seeing an unfamiliar car pull up outside.

The owner, Theodore Turcott, reportedly confronted the intruder and detained her until police arrived.

In a further twist in the case, Diana Palin's 4-year-old daughter was apparently waiting in the car outside, but entered the house before police arrived, a prosecutor said during a Palmer District Court hearing Friday. The little girl reportedly told police she had been in the house before.

Diana Palin was taken into custody on felony burglary charges relating to two break-ins at the Turcott house. A spokeswoman for Gov. Palin declined the newspaper's request for comment.

Judge Rules Some Prisoners at Bagram Have Right of Habeas Corpus

2009-04-04T11:17:00.001-07:00

A federal judge ruled on Thursday that some prisoners held by the United States military in Afghanistan have a right to challenge their imprisonment, dealing a blow to government efforts to detain terrorism suspects for extended periods without court oversight.

In a 53-page ruling that rejected a claim of unfettered executive power advanced by both the Bush and Obama administrations, United States District Judge John D. Bates said that three detainees at the United States’ Bagram Air Base had the same legal rights that the Supreme Court last year granted to prisoners held at the American naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The three detainees — two Yemenis and a Tunisian — say that they were captured outside Afghanistan and taken to Bagram, and that they have been imprisoned for more than six years without trials. Arguing that they were not enemy combatants, the detainees want a civilian judge to review the evidence against them and order their release, under the constitutional right of habeas corpus.

The importance of Bagram as a holding site for terrorism suspects captured outside Afghanistan and Iraq has increased under the Obama administration, which prohibited the Central Intelligence Agency from using its secret prisons for long-term detention and ordered the military prison at Guantánamo closed within a year. The administration had sought to preserve Bagram as a haven where it could detain terrorism suspects beyond the reach of American courts, telling Judge Bates in February that it agreed with the Bush administration’s view that courts had no jurisdiction over detainees there.

Judge Bates, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001, was not persuaded. He said transferring captured terrorism suspects to the prison inside Afghanistan and claiming they were beyond the jurisdiction of American courts “resurrects the same specter of limitless executive power the Supreme Court sought to guard against” in its 2008 ruling that Guantánamo prisoners have a right to habeas corpus.

Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, said that the administration was reviewing the decision and that it had made no decision about whether to appeal.

Judge Bates emphasized that his ruling was “quite narrow.” He said that it did not apply to prisoners captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan, and that a determination of whether prisoners might challenge their detention in court would depend on a case-by-case analysis of factors like their citizenship and location of capture.

“It is one thing to detain those captured on the surrounding battlefield at a place like Bagram, which respondents correctly maintain is in a theater of war,” the judge wrote. “It is quite another thing to apprehend people in foreign countries — far from any Afghan battlefield — and then bring them to a theater of war, where the Constitution arguably may not reach.”

Moreover, the judge has put off ruling that a fourth prisoner — also captured outside Afghanistan, but holding Afghan citizenship — had a right to challenge his detention. He said any order to release the detainee could lead to frictions with the Afghan government, and asked for additional briefings on that case.

The United States is holding about 600 people at Bagram without charges and in spartan conditions. United States officials have never provided a full accounting of the prison population, but an American government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because it is against policy to discuss details of the Bagram prison, said that fewer than a dozen detainees fell into the category affected by the ruling — non-Afghans captured beyond Afghan borders.

Judge Bates has been involved in several high-profile executive power cases. In 2002, he sided with the Bush administration in a lawsuit over whether Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force records were required to be disclosed. But in 2008, he sided with Congress in an executive-privilege dispute over whether top aides to Mr. Bush were immune from subpoenas related to the firing of federal prosecutors.

David Rivkin, an associate White House counsel in the administration of the first President Bush, predicted that Judge Bates’s ruling would be overturned on appeal. He warned that the ruling “gravely undermined” the country’s “ability to detain enemy combatants for the duration of hostilities worldwide.”

But Tina Foster, the executive director of the International Justice Network, which is representing the four Bagram detainees, praised Judge Bates’s decision as “a very good day for the Constitution and the rule of law.”

Ms. Foster said that the Bagram ruling meant that changes to the Bush detention policies would go beyond merely closing Guantánamo and extend “to any place where the United States seeks to hold individuals in a legal black hole.”

The power of federal judges to review decisions by the executive branch to imprison a terrorism suspect was among the most contentious legal issues that arose after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The Bush administration began a policy of holding prisoners indefinitely and without trials, arguing that federal judges had no authority to second-guess its decisions about whom to name an “enemy combatant.”

But human-rights lawyers challenged those policies, winning Supreme Court decisions in 2004, 2006 and 2008 that gradually expanded the reach of the American legal system over detainees.

After taking office, Mr. Obama ordered a review of the evidence against each of the roughly 240 prisoners at Guantánamo as a first step toward closing the prison within a year.

He did not extend the steps he was taking to resolve the fate of the Guantánamo prisoners to those held at Bagram, although a comprehensive review of detainee policies is due to be completed in July. Ms. Foster said that the Bagram case may force the administration to speed up its decisions.

World Leaders Pledge $1.1 Trillion for Crisis

2009-04-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

Struggling to bridge deep divides over how to revive a paralyzed global economy, the leaders of the world’s largest economies agreed Thursday to bail out developing countries, stimulate world trade and regulate financial firms more stringently. But President Obama conceded that there were “no guarantees” that those measures would reverse the biggest global downturn in six decades.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, host of the Group of 20 summit meeting called to fight the crisis, announced at its conclusion that the leaders had committed to $1.1 trillion in new funds that would greatly increase the capital available to the International Monetary Fund. The goal would be a revival in trade, which is expected to contract this year for the first time in 30 years.

But the combination of loans and guarantees fell short of an injection of fresh fiscal stimuli into the economic bloodstream — the result of a stubborn division between Continental Europe and the United States over whether to act now or wait to see whether existing spending measures took effect.

Moreover, the final accord was far more forceful in addressing the plight of emerging economies that had been sideswiped by the financial crisis than it was in addressing the deep recession in the largest countries where the crisis began.

The proposed remedies, some critics said, treat some peripheral effects of the crisis rather than its thorniest causes. On the critical question of how to grapple with trillions of dollars in “toxic assets” clotting the financial system in Europe and the United States, there was a declaration of goals but few specific actions.

Still, the meeting eased fears that leaders would repeat the failure of a similar gathering in 1933, which was followed by a surge of protectionism that prolonged the Great Depression. It also gave Mr. Obama a high-profile debut on the world stage. He projected contrition about America’s role in starting the meltdown, extolled global resolve to find a way to end the downturn and mediated a dispute between the presidents of France and China over tax havens.

“Today, we’ve learned the lessons of history,” Mr. Obama declared in a news conference in which he was noticeably relaxed, taking questions from journalists from India and China. But he also said that getting more than 20 countries to agree to common steps was particularly hard because “each country has its own quirks.”

The meeting, he said, exemplified the power of developing nations, heralding a new age in which decisions about the future of the global economy will no longer be made by an elite club of Western powers that have set the global rules since the Bretton Woods agreement in July 1944.

Mr. Brown, who organized the meeting in a hangarlike conference center in London, said: “This is the day the world came together to fight against the global recession. Our message today is clear and certain: we believe that global problems require global solutions.”

The most concrete step was a $750 billion reinforcement of the resources of the monetary fund, which has emerged from years of waning relevance to become the first responder in this crisis, lending billions of dollars in emergency loans to dozens of countries.

In addition, the leaders agreed to provide $250 billion in trade credits, needed to finance cross-border trade that has declined roughly 10 percent as a result of the credit crisis and the economic downturn.

Among other steps Mr. Brown detailed were new regulations on hedge funds and rating agencies, as well as a crackdown on tax havens, which will be publicly identified and subjected to sanctions if they do not agree to share tax information with the authorities of other countries. A senior Obama administration official cautioned that the sanctions were “future oriented.”

Stock markets around the world, especially in emerging nations, rose in the hours leading up to the announcement.

In the United States, however, investors seemed less cheered about a deal emerging from the Group of 20 than about an arcane change in American accounting regulations that would make it easier for banks to defer writing down the value of their most troubled toxic assets. Many financial experts had been hoping that world leaders would address how to dispose of those assets rather than leave bankers to use accounting changes to make them appear less crippling.

“The rich countries are in denial about the depth of the problems remaining in their financial sectors,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard. “They want to congratulate themselves for taking all the right steps already, as if the only problem now is how to help emerging markets.”

In the end, the leaders also papered over one of their most public disputes: whether countries around the world should commit to even greater fiscal stimuli than they had already enacted.

France and Germany balked at American pressure, saying their social safety nets accomplished much of the goal. Mr. Obama largely surrendered the point, agreeing to vague wording that allowed nations the leeway of promising to take whatever steps were necessary for “sustained growth.”

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, lavished praise on Mr. Obama, saying he “pushed very hard to come to concrete solutions and to have a fruitful discussion.”

The Group of 20 did agree on new global rules to govern the pay and bonuses of bankers. The leaders also agreed to “name and shame” countries that erected trade barriers, intended to resist growing protectionist sentiment.

But a European push for sweeping global regulation of the financial markets was blunted, to a large degree, by the United States. While the leaders agreed to create a new Financial Stability Board to monitor the financial system for signs of risks, they stopped well short of giving regulators cross-border authority, something France has long advocated.

Instead, the leaders agreed to more closely coordinate their regulation of “systemically important” financial institutions. They did not, however, agree on a mechanism to resolve cross-border disputes that might arise in the winding down of insolvent banks, an issue that might yet arise if global banks like Citigroup or Royal Bank of Scotland fell deeper in trouble.

“The regulatory part was close to a zero,” said Simon Johnson, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr. Johnson said that despite the failure to reach an agreement on more stimulus programs, he considered the meeting a success for Mr. Obama. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner had led the push to reinforce the monetary fund, and he won more than analysts had expected.

In addition to its vastly larger financial resources, the monetary fund was given a mandate to act as an early warning system for financial risks.

China is expected to contribute $40 billion. Japan and the European Union each pledged $100 billion. The United States has said it will contribute $100 billion, too, though that requires Congressional approval.

In addition to $500 billion in loans, the Group of 20 approved a one-time issuance of $250 billion in Special Drawing Rights, the synthetic currency of the fund, which will be parceled out to all its 185 members.

Reflecting the rise of China, India and other emerging nations, the leaders called on the fund to overhaul its management by 2011 to better reflect the economic weight of its member states.

“Today is the proof that the I.M.F. is back,” said the fund’s managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

China’s Dollar Trap

2009-04-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

Back in the early stages of the financial crisis, wags joked that our trade with China had turned out to be fair and balanced after all: They sold us poison toys and tainted seafood; we sold them fraudulent securities.

But these days, both sides of that deal are breaking down. On one side, the world’s appetite for Chinese goods has fallen off sharply. China’s exports have plunged in recent months and are now down 26 percent from a year ago. On the other side, the Chinese are evidently getting anxious about those securities.

But China still seems to have unrealistic expectations. And that’s a problem for all of us.

The big news last week was a speech by Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of China’s central bank, calling for a new “super-sovereign reserve currency.”

The paranoid wing of the Republican Party promptly warned of a dastardly plot to make America give up the dollar. But Mr. Zhou’s speech was actually an admission of weakness. In effect, he was saying that China had driven itself into a dollar trap, and that it can neither get itself out nor change the policies that put it in that trap in the first place.

Some background: In the early years of this decade, China began running large trade surpluses and also began attracting substantial inflows of foreign capital. If China had had a floating exchange rate — like, say, Canada — this would have led to a rise in the value of its currency, which, in turn, would have slowed the growth of China’s exports.

But China chose instead to keep the value of the yuan in terms of the dollar more or less fixed. To do this, it had to buy up dollars as they came flooding in. As the years went by, those trade surpluses just kept growing — and so did China’s hoard of foreign assets.

Now the joke about fraudulent securities was actually unfair. Aside from a late, ill-considered plunge into equities (at the very top of the market), the Chinese mainly accumulated very safe assets, with U.S. Treasury bills — T-bills, for short — making up a large part of the total. But while T-bills are as safe from default as anything on the planet, they yield a very low rate of return.

Was there a deep strategy behind this vast accumulation of low-yielding assets? Probably not. China acquired its $2 trillion stash — turning the People’s Republic into the T-bills Republic — the same way Britain acquired its empire: in a fit of absence of mind.

And just the other day, it seems, China’s leaders woke up and realized that they had a problem.

The low yield doesn’t seem to bother them much, even now. But they are, apparently, worried about the fact that around 70 percent of those assets are dollar-denominated, so any future fall in the dollar would mean a big capital loss for China. Hence Mr. Zhou’s proposal to move to a new reserve currency along the lines of the S.D.R.’s, or special drawing rights, in which the International Monetary Fund keeps its accounts.

But there’s both less and more here than meets the eye. S.D.R.’s aren’t real money. They’re accounting units whose value is set by a basket of dollars, euros, Japanese yen and British pounds. And there’s nothing to keep China from diversifying its reserves away from the dollar, indeed from holding a reserve basket matching the composition of the S.D.R.’s — nothing, that is, except for the fact that China now owns so many dollars that it can’t sell them off without driving the dollar down and triggering the very capital loss its leaders fear.

So what Mr. Zhou’s proposal actually amounts to is a plea that someone rescue China from the consequences of its own investment mistakes. That’s not going to happen.

And the call for some magical solution to the problem of China’s excess of dollars suggests something else: that China’s leaders haven’t come to grips with the fact that the rules of the game have changed in a fundamental way.

Two years ago, we lived in a world in which China could save much more than it invested and dispose of the excess savings in America. That world is gone.

Yet the day after his new-reserve-currency speech, Mr. Zhou gave another speech in which he seemed to assert that China’s extremely high savings rate is immutable, a result of Confucianism, which values “anti-extravagance.” Meanwhile, “it is not the right time” for the United States to save more. In other words, let’s go on as we were.

That’s also not going to happen.

The bottom line is that China hasn’t yet faced up to the wrenching changes that will be needed to deal with this global crisis. The same could, of course, be said of the Japanese, the Europeans — and us.

And that failure to face up to new realities is the main reason that, despite some glimmers of good news — the G-20 summit accomplished more than I thought it would — this crisis probably still has years to run.

I Hate My iPhone

2009-04-04T11:12:00.000-07:00

The iPhone was charging. Refined, introverted, mysteriously chilled, my new $200 tile of technology lay supine on a side table, gulping power from the wall.

Actually, the iPhone probably sips, like a lipsticky girl with a vodka drink. It usually does things in a cute way. Whatever. At 4 in the morning, I was in bed, fighting rage. I couldn’t stop thinking about that device’s tarty little face and those yapping “apps” you can download for it. The whole iPhone enterprise seemed to require so much attention, organization, explanation, praise, electricity. I know — I know: in the morning, Apple’s latest miracle machine would fill my palm with meaning and magic. So why couldn’t I contain my annoyance? I had no new-thing excitement. It dawned on me: I hated my iPhone.

I was late to get one — and maybe that’s the problem. Maybe my hopes for the iPhone curdled in the time it took for my perfectly good T-Mobile plan to expire so I could switch to balky AT&T and purchase one. But I had bided my time. And, really, my enthusiasm survived right up to the moment at the AT&T counter, post-sale, when a saleswoman transferred my address book from my battered BlackBerry to the sweetie-pie iPhone.

“Can you set up my e-mail too?” I asked. She handed me the phone and told me what to type. Pressing her good nature, I asked if she’d do that part too, since I wasn’t yet handy with the iPhone’s character-entry system — the 2D screen-based simulation of the qwerty keyboard.

She gave me a hard look. Truly, as if she was supposed to be on the lookout for people like me. “It’s your phone,” she replied briskly. “It’s time you started typing on it.”

It’s time. She was like a nurse for newborns, urging me — a new mother — to step up and change a diaper or something. And I felt just like a sullen new mom, not ready for her role. “Can you just do it this one time?” I said weakly. She poked in the necessary codes. She didn’t trust me, but she let me take the iPhone home anyway.

I didn’t trust myself, either. There were warning signs. I didn’t rush to explore the phone or load it up with apps. I didn’t fantasize about its features, as I did with the feedable Baby Alive doll when I was 6 or with my first Macintosh, when I was 19. Instead, the iPhone stayed in my bag. A hard weight with glossy surfaces, it kept aloof from the animal warmth of my leather wallet. I didn’t even face the iPhone again until it rang, or chimed — or produced some audio confection that seemed cloyingly churchy.

You can see I wasn’t thinking clearly. To answer the phone, I had to touch the screen. Years of not touching screens — so as not to smudge or scar — made me wary. But I brushed the “answer call” and up came fragments of my mother’s cheerful voice. AT&T no doubt works like a charm in other areas, but as I’d been warned, it wasn’t so hot on holding calls where I live. I let it drop my mom. I hunted for a keypad to call her back, but it was gone.

The morning after my sleepless night of charging the phone, a text message arrived from a colleague, about breakfast. It came up in a little dialogue bubble, as if we were characters in a comic book.

Now I had to reply. My throat tightened. “Running late,” I decided on. “See you in 15 min.”

What came out was this: “Runninlate. See you in 15 Mon.”

Why? Why, because of course that’s what I typed! What did I know of this wacko kind of typing? I spent my adolescence touch-typing, convinced my life would be passed secretarially, my left pinkie building novelty muscle manning the A. Then the technology changed, and I improvised an inelegant three-finger style for computer keyboards.

Then years ago, when I bought a BlackBerry, I adapted again. My two hands met as if in prayer, as the thick thumbs took center stage. I liked it. Thinking with my thumbs made sense in a way that thinking with nails and feebler fingers never would or did. And the transformation of thumb-twiddling into typing! Nervous motion was turned productive, as it is in knitting or whittling. Ingenious.

Oh, God. I really was losing it. As I composed my running-late text, the iPhone’s iciness deepened my revulsion. Did this device, which was built never to be cradled, ever warm up? I was also mortified by my illiteracy. My right index finger — the only digit precise enough to hit the close-set virtual iPhone keys — seemed an anemic, cerebral thing, designed for making paltry points in debating club. I repeatedly stabbed to the right of my target letter. It was like being 4 again — or being 90. I couldn’t see, it seemed; I couldn’t point; I couldn’t connect.

And so the iPhone made suggestions. Did I want to say Ride? Ripe? Ruin? No. I wanted to say Running. You know, the way a human might. But with its know-it-all suggestions, the iPhone seemed to want to be more human, more helpful, jollier than I was! The vaunted Apple user-friendliness was exposed, before my eyes, as bossiness and insincerity.

I refused to fight further with the smug phone. Off sailed my text — the work of a blithering idiot.

At breakfast, my colleague said she loved her iPhone. She insisted my typing would improve, but she clearly has more native index-finger skills than I do. I asked her if she thought the iPhone was “coy” or “cold,” and she looked at me blankly. As I spoke I felt like a chippy freak — one of those people too intransigently cranky even to like Barack Obama, or recycling, or the Internet. I thought of how clearly the iPhone suits the moment: Apple once again getting ahead of the game, offering something cuter and funner and more Appley than anyone else.

The failure to appreciate the iPhone was all mine. But I decided not to dwell on that. “I thought you might be back,” the AT&T saleswoman said as I walked in the door. “So?” I said. “You were right.” With some satisfaction, she took the iPhone, and I walked away with a new BlackBerry and money to spare.

Iowa Court Voids Gay Marriage Ban

2009-04-04T11:10:00.000-07:00

Same-sex couples will be allowed to marry in Iowa by month’s end, after a ruling on Friday by the Iowa Supreme Court that found unconstitutional a state law limiting marriage to a man and a woman.

The unanimous decision moved the heated battle over same-sex marriage beyond the East and West Coasts to the nation’s middle. Only Massachusetts and Connecticut now allow same-sex marriages, while California permitted them for about six months before voters approved a ban in November.

“We are firmly convinced the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective,” Justice Mark S. Cady wrote for the seven-member court, adding later, “We have a constitutional duty to ensure equal protection of the law.”

Opponents of same-sex marriage pledged to fight the outcome, but acknowledged that there appeared to be no immediate way to undo it. The only avenue would be a constitutional amendment, but under Iowa law that process would take at least two years.

Members of the Iowa Family Policy Center, a group opposed to same-sex marriage, spoke with state lawmakers after the ruling in hopes of jump-starting the amendment process.

“A court decision doesn’t change what’s right and what’s wrong,” said Bryan English, a spokesman for the group.

But there was no indication that the Legislature, controlled by Democrats, would take up the matter.

Meanwhile, the ruling set off celebrations among same-sex couples, many of whom had gathered at a hotel here to await word. They wept, embraced, laughed, and wept some more.

“I think there’s been a perception that it couldn’t happen here,” David Twombley, 67, said, moments after he learned that he and his partner could marry. The couple was among six Iowa couples to start the legal fight four years ago that culminated in Friday’s decision.

“But yes, it happened, right here in Iowa,” Mr. Twombley said. “There’s something about that, about it happening in the heartland, that has got to accelerate this process for the whole country.”

Same-sex marriages could take place in counties here starting in three weeks, when the ruling becomes final, lawyers said. There is no requirement that people seeking marriage licenses prove they live in Iowa, so the doors will be open to same-sex couples from other states.

“Go get married!” Dennis W. Johnson, a lawyer from Des Moines who had helped represent the gay and lesbian couples in the case, told the gathering at the hotel. “Live happily ever after,” Mr. Johnson called out, adding, “Live the American dream.”

Opponents of the decision said they believed it would awaken enormous backlash here and throughout the Midwest once people understood what had happened.

Along the streets of this city in the hours after the ruling, people expressed mixed views of the matter, though nearly all said they were surprised — happily so, in some cases, but less so for others — at what the court had concluded.

On at least one talk-radio show, residents were enraged.

“I’m almost ready to up and leave Iowa and move back to Minnesota,” one woman said angrily.

Within hours of the decision, the representatives of the Iowa Family Policy Center left the Supreme Court building here, and sought out state lawmakers in the State Capitol building just down the street.

Unlike some states that have barred the marriages with voter-led ballot measures, voters here cannot directly initiate constitutional amendments. Instead, an amendment would require approval by state lawmakers during two legislative sessions, and then approval by voters at the ballot box. That means the earliest a prospective ban could take effect would be 2012.

Opponents of same-sex marriages want state lawmakers, who are a few weeks from finishing their annual legislative session, to begin the process now. But the idea seemed to have no backing among legislative leaders; both chambers here are controlled by Democrats.

“We’re just going to say no to amending our Constitution and putting discrimination into our Constitution,” said Michael E. Gronstal, a Democrat and State Senate majority leader, who noted that such an amendment had failed in the Senate several years ago, even before the suit that led to Friday’s ruling, and would, he said, most likely fail again.

Gov. Chet Culver, also a Democrat, was more muted in his response to the ruling.

“The next responsible step is to thoroughly review this decision, which I am doing with my legal counsel and the attorney general, before reacting to what it means for Iowa,” Mr. Culver said in a written statement.

Whether or not state lawmakers take up the constitutional amendment in the coming weeks, the ruling ensures the state will become a battleground over same-sex marriage.

National advocacy groups, which have been focused on a case before the California Supreme Court that seeks to overturn the ban in that state, and on Vermont, where a bill legalizing same-sex marriage is pending, have already turned their eyes to Des Moines.

“The gay marriage movement has once again used the power of the courts to push an untruth on unwilling Iowans,” said Brian S. Brown, the executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, a group formed in 2007 to preserve traditional marriage. “Same-sex unions are not marriages, and Iowans should not be forced by law to treat them as such.”

Leaders of Lambda Legal, which is based in New York and led — along with state and local lawyers here — the legal case before the Supreme Court, said Iowans had a long history of openmindedness, or as State Senator Matt McCoy, a Democrat who is openly gay, described it, “a live and let live attitude.”

Camilla Taylor, a senior staff lawyer for Lambda, said the Supreme Court ruling in a way was merely “vindicating quintessential Iowa values,” namely, a commitment to families. That this battle was being waged in Iowa, Ms. Taylor said, would have a “transformative effect” not just on the Midwest, but elsewhere.

“The fact that it’s here in some way highlights the inevitability of this all,” she said.

The legal case here began in 2005, when the six same-sex couples filed suit against the county recorder here in Polk County because he would not accept their marriage license applications.

Two years later, a local judge, Robert B. Hanson, ruled in that case that a 1998 state law defining marriage as only between a man and woman was unconstitutional. The ruling, in 2007, set off a flurry of same-sex couples from all over the state, racing for the courthouse in Polk County.

The rush lasted less than a day in August 2007. Although Judge Hanson had ruled against the state law, he quickly decided to delay any additional granting of licenses, saying that the Iowa Supreme Court should have an opportunity to weigh in first.

“If gay and lesbian people must submit to different treatment without an exceedingly persuasive justification, they are deprived of the benefits of the principle of equal protection upon which the rule of law is founded,” the Supreme Court said in agreeing that the 1998 law was unconstitutional.

Ban the Breast Pump

2009-04-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

At another time, in another place, they would have been burned at the stake as witches.

In coming weeks, as the news of their heresy spreads, they will undoubtedly roast in the hellfire of mommy-blog vituperation.

“That was my least favorite thing I ever did in my whole life,” Washington writer Hanna Rosin says in a podcast conversation with three pals that accompanies her sure-to-be-controversial new feature, “The Case Against Breast Feeding,” on The Atlantic’s Web site.

She’s talking about pumping breast milk – the grotesque ritual carried out behind closed office doors nationwide by beleaguered working mothers who are fully “committed” (as the lactation consultants put it) to the goal of long-term, exclusive breast-feeding.

“The way your nipples can get stretched,” the others chime in. “… the nipple gets sucked into the plastic thing” … “and it hurts by the way” … “and you measure your success every day by now many ounces you produce.”

Rosin does an excellent imitation of a breast pump machine as the room erupts into laughter. “Who could blame [your husband] for never wanting to sleep with you again?”

“It’s the moment that kind of brings together all the awfulness of being a modern mother,” she says.

Hallelujah, I all but shouted at the computer, desperate to join in the conversation with these newfound sure-to-be best friends.

And then I flinched. And then I ducked, as though I expected the long arm of All That Is Decent to reach out from behind the screen to strike me.

Now, let me just be clear: I am no enemy of breast-feeding. I nursed both my daughters and would not take back that experience for all the world. But I did not breast-feed them exclusively. I had a mother who breast-fed in the mid-’60s despite the disgust of friends and family, and who insisted that my happiness depended on giving them one bottle of formula a day. I was in France, where their doctor started adding fruits and vegetables to their diet at about three or four months. And where it was easy, after a few miserable weeks, to give up on pumping milk, if only because it made me feel like a cow.

Is it at long last possible – on this side of the Atlantic – to suggest that we’ve maybe taken “breast is best” a bit too far? That a mother’s need for some semblance of physical dignity is perhaps a right worth respecting? That supplementing with formula – if it makes for greater happiness (and emotional availability) in the baby’s most important caretaker – isn’t necessarily an act of gross irresponsibility?

Maybe. Maybe we’re even at a point where it’s permissible to insist that the needs of a mother and the needs of her baby, rather than being opposed are, in fact, linked, and that the best way to meet both is to scale down the demands now put on mothers and beef up support for them.

Rosin’s article, based upon a review of the relevant medical literature and some physician interviews, makes the case that the health claims about breast milk have been greatly overstated. There’s contradictory evidence, she writes, on the virtues of breast milk in combating allergies, leukemia, high cholesterol and diabetes. There is evidence that breast-feeding can help prevent diarrhea, and some indications that breast-feeding might hike up a baby’s I.Q. – by a more or less meaningless couple of points. But the cause of this intelligence boost is unclear. Are breast-fed babies very slightly smarter because they’ve been fed breast milk, or because they’ve been snuggled more closely, been cooed over more exclusively, or otherwise enjoyed any other hard-to-identify-or-isolate variables that simply can’t be controlled in the kinds of studies that currently exist and compare breast-fed and bottle-fed babies?

There’s no way to know. After all, you can’t carry out randomized, controlled trials of baby-feeding. You can’t assemble a group of mothers of equivalent levels of education, income and physical and mental health, control for every possible variation in their emotional availability and parenting style, and then instruct half of them to breast-feed their children, while ordering the other half to bottle-feed for the sake of science. Which means, Rosin writes, that there really is no good science on breast-feeding.

I am sure that the American Academy of Pediatrics – which currently recommends six months of exclusive breast feeding and some breast feeding for at least a year – will soon speak up to refute Rosin’s conclusions, and that the Dr. William Sears-inspired attachment parenting crowd will soon assail her in the blogosphere. Whether her science is or is not on track, I cannot judge. But her argument raises questions that I believe are worth asking.

Why have we made such a fetish of breast milk when there’s no evidence to prove whether, as Rosin puts it in the Atlantic video, “what’s key about breast feeding is the milk or the act of breast-feeding”?

Why, as a society, have we privileged the magic elixir of maternal milk over actual maternal contact, denying the vast, vast majority of mothers the kind of extended maternity leave that would make them physically present for their babies?

Why do we keep sticking our heads in the sand, putting all the burdens of our half-changed society on women – their “choices,” their “priorities,” their bodies – instead of figuring out reasonable ways to make our new family lives work?

Why do we, as women, accept all the guilt and pressure about breast-feeding that comes our way instead of standing up for what we need in order, in the broadest possible sense, to nourish and sustain ourselves and our families?

“There’s this funny thing going on where women have worked for a long time. Almost 50 years. There’s been a tremendous change. Children still have to be raised. The equation doesn’t add up and everyone pretends it’s not happening,” Rosin says near the end of the video interview. “So I feel like when that step happens, there’ll sort of be a degree of ownership, that O.K., we have to make all these things happen at once. And formula will enter into that conversation.”

And she adds, “I’m hoping pump companies will just disappear.”

So am I. In fact, I hope that some day, not too long in the future, books on women’s history will feature photos of breast pumps to illustrate what it was like back in the day when mothers were consistently given the shaft. Future generations of female college students will gaze upon the pumps, aghast.

“Did you actually use one of those?” they’ll ask their mothers, in horror.

And the moms, with a shudder, will proudly say no.

With the Downturn, It’s Time to Rethink the Legal Profession

2009-04-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

The economic downturn is hitting the legal world hard. American Lawyer is calling it “the fire this time” and warning that big firms may be hurtling toward “a paradigm-shifting, blood-in-the-suites” future. The Law Shucks blog has a “layoff tracker,” and it is grim reading. Top firms are rapidly thinning their ranks, and several — including Heller Ehrman, a venerable 500-plus-lawyer firm founded in 1890 — have closed.

The employment pains of the legal elite may not elicit a lot of sympathy in the broader context of the recession, but a lot of hard-working lawyers have been blindsided, including young associates who are suddenly finding themselves with six-figure student-loan debts and no source of income.

Leading firms have historically avoided mass layoffs, concerned that their reputations would take a hit. But some have been putting those inhibitions aside, perhaps calculating that the stigma of pushing out their colleagues has faded. Law firm managers and bar associations should be looking for more creative ways to deal with the hard times — like reducing pay for both partners and associates to save jobs, as a few firms have begun doing.

The silver lining, if there is one, is that the legal world may be inspired to draw blueprints for the 21st century.

The changes are likely to begin with compensation. Years ago, law firm starting salaries were not that different from government or public-interest jobs. But the gap has become a chasm. First-year salaries at top firms are around $160,000, compared with $48,000 to start for state and local prosecutors and $40,000 for legal-services lawyers. New associates often earn more than the judges they appear before.

The downturn will probably rein in salaries at the high end. Top firms are already under pressure to lower the $160,000 starting salary; one industry-watcher says it could fall as low as $100,000. And fewer firms will feel the need to pay the top salary.

Lower pay should mean that associates will not need to work the grueling hours many have been forced to. And it will mean less pressure to go into private practice for law graduates who would rather do something else.

Clients are also likely to benefit — and consumers, since legal fees are built into the cost of almost everything. Even before the downturn, big-firm clients, led by the Association of Corporate Counsel, were pushing to phase out the billable hour — which can go as high as $1,000. Tight corporate budgets will give clients more leverage to push to pay by the project or for successful outcomes.

For years, law school tuition rose along with big-firm salaries. Between 1990 and 2003, the cost of private law schools rose at nearly three times the rate of consumer prices. The average graduate now leaves with more than $80,000 in debt. In one survey, 66 percent of students said debt prevented them from considering government or public-interest jobs.

If the downturn is prolonged, law schools will need to keep tuition and other costs in check so students do not graduate with unmanageable debt. More schools may follow the lead of Northwestern, the first top-tier law school to offer a two-year program.

Law schools may also become more serious about curriculum reform. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching released an influential report that, among other things, urged law schools to make better use of the sometimes-aimless second and third years. If law jobs are scarce, there will be more pressure on schools to make the changes Carnegie suggested, including more focus on practical skills.

They may also need to pay more attention to preparing students for nonlegal careers. Law graduates have always ended up in business, government, journalism and other fields. Law schools could do more to build these subjects into their coursework.

The past few decades of prosperity made a lot of lawyers wealthy, but they were not always good for the profession. Law school deans, bar association leaders and firm managers should follow Rahm Emanuel’s advice about never allowing a crisis to go to waste and start planning for what comes next.

Turkey agreed to NATO chief after Obama pledges

2009-04-04T10:24:00.001-07:00

Turkey said on Saturday it had dropped its objections to Dane Anders Fogh Rasmussen becoming the next head of NATO after U.S. President Barack Obama offered promises that one of Rasmussen's deputies would be a Turk.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, whose country had threatened to veto Rasmussen because of his handling of a 2006 crisis over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper, said Obama had also given Turkey guarantees that Turkish commanders would be present at the alliance's command.

"We explained our reservations on Rasmussen to Obama and he gave us guarantees on our reservations. Then our president accepted Rasmussen's candidacy," Erdogan told Turkish television.

"One of the issues is to have a Turk as one of his (Rasmussen) deputies and to have our commanders in NATO command," Erdogan told reporters in Ankara.

Turkey's objections to Rasmussen had threatened the image of unity NATO had sought to present at the military alliance's 60th anniversary summit.

It had also put the European Union-candidate at odds with France and Germany, which had strongly backed Rasmussen.

NATO is engaged in the biggest military operation in its history in Afghanistan, and Turkey, the only mainly Muslim member of the alliance, had said Rasmussen's appointment would exacerbate hostility towards the West in Muslim countries.

Rasmussen had defended the publication of the cartoons, which caused protests in the Muslim world, on the grounds of free speech and refused to apologise to Muslim countries.

But Turkey dropped its opposition at the last minute after Turkish President Abdullah Gul held private talks with Obama and Rasmussen, a Turkish official said.

"I acted responsibly as the prime minister of Turkey," Erdogan told Turkish television.

"One of the issues we put forward was how to improve relations by being more sensitive over the cartoon issue," Erdogan added. Rasmussen is scheduled to attend an international event on civilisations in Istanbul April 6-7.

Erdogan, who will host Obama on the same dates, said Turkey had brought up the issue with Obama of Kurdish ROJ TV, which has close links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a separatist guerrilla group, but is allowed to broadcast from Denmark.

Erdogan has said he has asked Rasmussen to shut down the station many times, but that the Dane had ignored his pleas.

The PKK, which has fought for an ethnic Kurish homeland in Turkey since 1984, is listed as a terrorist group in the United States and in the European Union.

Brown praises Nato troop increase

2009-04-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has welcomed the decision by Nato countries to deploy more troops to Afghanistan.

Germany, Spain, Portugal and Italy are among those who offered a temporary increase in their forces at the alliance's summit in Strasbourg.

Mr Brown said extra UK troops meant "our streets will be safer in Britain".

He also told Afghan President Hamid Karzai he had "grave concerns" about a law which critics say legalises marital rape and attacks women's rights.

'Properly protected'

Mr Brown said Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Poland, Turkey and Croatia would all increase their deployments - joining Germany, which had already made a similar announcement.

Speaking at the close of the summit, he said there was a need for "burden-sharing" over the the "critical months" ahead.

"With important presidential elections to come in the next few months, we must not allow the Taliban to disrupt the democratic process," Mr Brown said.

"Britain is therefore prepared to send additional troops as part of a wider Nato effort to strengthen security over the summer and until the elections as well as to ensure that our forces are properly protected from the growing threat of roadside bombs."

The prime minister denied that US President Barack Obama had asked directly for an extra 2,000 UK troops to be permanently deployed, but said the government had not ruled out sending extra forces in future.

'Democratic future'

He also said he had expressed his opposition to Mr Karzai about new measures covering Shia Muslims which campaigners say would legalise rape within marriage and restricts the freedom of women to go out without the their husbands' permission.

The issue "risks putting Afghanistan back to its past rather than towards a democratic future where men and women are treated equally", Mr Brown added. HAVE YOUR SAY Nato came into existence in a period when Cold War hostilities had become quite strong. What's the meaning of its existence in today's world? Deboshree, Delhi

"People will not accept that British soldiers are working in Afghanistan to make Afghanistan safe if the rights of women are not being properly upheld in the country. That is why I have demanded assurances from President Karzai," he said.

The president gave an assurance that he would make a statement on the subject and bring the law back before the Afghan Parliament, Mr Brown said.

The prime minister welcomed the appointment of Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the next Nato secretary general, saying the decision by member states had been "unanimous".

But the decision to appoint Mr Rasmussen was attacked by Mohammed Shafiq, the leader of the UK Muslim group the Ramadhan Foundation.

Mr Rasmussen's candidacy had previously been fiercely opposed by Turkey after he defended freedom of speech during the controversy over the decision by a Danish newspaper to print cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.

Mr Shafiq said he was "appalled" at the elevation of "a person who refused to condemn the vicious and racist cartoons and is now going to try to build links with Muslim countries".

The summit had been marred when anti-Nato protesters fought police and set buildings alight in Strasbourg.

According to a White House statement, America's Nato allies are committing "up to 5,000" more military personnel to Afghanistan, for training and the election period.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that 900 troops would come from Britain, 600 from Germany and 600 from Spain.

Italy and France were fresh committing forces, too, he added.

There are currently over 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, mostly under Nato command. Mr Obama is to send 21,000 additional US troops, while considering a further deployment of 10,000.

Nicholas Hughes, son of Sylvia Plath, commits suicide

2009-03-24T12:39:00.001-07:00

Forty six years after his mother, iconic poet Sylvia Plath, committed suicide by gassing herself, her son, Nicholas Hughes has also taken his own life. After a battle with depression, reports The Times Online, Hughes, 47, who had most recently worked as a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, hanged himself in his Alaskan home. “His lifelong fascination with fish and fishing was a strong and shared bond with our father (many of whose poems were about the natural world)," said his sister, Freida Hughes, in a statement. "He was a loving brother, a loyal friend to those who knew him and, despite the vagaries that life threw at him, he maintained an almost childlike innocence and enthusiasm for the next project or plan.”

Bruce Willis marries; Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart are engaged

2009-03-23T03:55:00.000-07:00

This was a big weekend for romance between actors and actresses 22 years their junior. Bruce Willis, 54, tied the knot with model-actress Emma Heming, 32, on Saturday at his home in Parrot Bay, Turks & Caicos, according to People.com. The report said that his ex-wife, Demi Moore, and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, (who also have an autumn-spring thing going) were in attendance, as were Moore and Willis' daughters, Rumer, Scout and Tallullah.

Word also leaked on the People site this weekend that Harrison Ford, 66, proposed to Calista Flockhart, 44, on Valentine's Day while the two were on vacation. They have been together for 7 1/2 years. No wedding date has been set, according to the Web site.

Family, friends gather to mourn Richardson

2009-03-23T03:49:00.001-07:00

Actress Natasha Richardson was buried Sunday near the home she shared with husband Liam Neeson and their two sons, Micheal and Daniel.

The funeral service took place at St. Peter's Episcopal Church on Deep Hollow Road. Richardson was buried at St. Peter's Cemetery at the intersection of the Shunpike and Route 44.

The funeral capped a week filled with tragedy and sorrow for Neeson and his family.

Richardson, 45, died Wednesday of brain injuries sustained in a skiing accident at the Mount Tremblant ski resort in Quebec, Canada.

Threats by the Kansas-based anti-homosexual Westboro Baptist Church to demonstrate at the funeral did not materialize.

The group, known for organizing anti-gay demonstrations and brandishing colorful signs filled with hate messages, had threatened to protest at the church because Richardson supported research for an AIDS cure.

She was on the board of amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.

Mourners gather

Mourners began arriving for the funeral around 1:30 p.m.

Among those attending were actors Ralph Fiennes, Laura Linney, Alan Rickman, Timothy Dalton, Holly Hunter and Uma Thurman.

Richardson's remains were transported from her home in a silver hearse, accompanied by by members of the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office and New York state police vehicles.

Neeson arrived with his sons; Richardson's mother, Vanessa Redgrave; aunt Lynn Redgrave; and sister, Joely Richardson.

After speaking with other people, the family walked to the front lawn of the small white church and stood facing the approximately 25 reporters, photographers and videographers.

Neeson and Vanessa Redgrave waved to the media.

Several members of the press shouted, "Thank you. We're sorry."

Neeson then assumed the left-front position as one of his wife's pallbearers, lifting the mahogany casket up the church's steps to a waiting gurney.

The church's bells pealed at the start of the service as mourners filed in.

Jeanette DeGroat of the Town of Poughkeepsie came to pay her respects to the actress.

"And maybe get a picture or two," she said.

DeGroat was impressed the family took a moment out of their grief to acknowledge the media.

"They didn't have to do this on a day like today," she said.

About an hour after the funeral began, the procession arrived at the cemetery.

When the graveside service was over, Neeson, Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave spent a moment at the nearby grave of actress Rachel Kempson, Richardson's grandmother, who died while visiting Richardson and her family in 2003.

Stars frequently seen

Celebrities are nothing new to Millbrook. It is an area a number of well-known personalities have been known to frequent -from the late James Cagney to Mary Tyler Moore.

Millbrook is also a small village insulated by country roads and rural landscapes.

The sudden invasion of television cameras, self-acknowledged paparazzi and intense media scrutiny was enough to disorient the most hardened village residents.

"It's a quiet community," Delia Davi said as she attended Mass at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, the same parish Richardson attended with Neeson. "But it's a big news story, so I guess you just have to deal with it."

Village Mayor Andrew Ciferri said Richardson's funeral was probably one of the biggest to take place in the village and the surrounding Town of Washington. Ciferri had firefighters stationed outside of St. Joseph's and closed the road leading to the church for a short time.

Ciferri did not say why he closed the road, but it was likely in response to the threat made by the Westboro Baptist Church to protest there.

While that group was absent Sunday, a little more than a dozen people stood outside of St. Joseph's in Millbrook in the afternoon.

Although the scene was relatively quiet, many were on high alert after hearing rumors Richardson's funeral procession would make its way through the village.

Josefina Otero, who lives across the street from St. Joseph's, had a disposable camera ready just in case.

"It's not that we're nosy," Otero said. "She was a wonderful woman, and she did a lot for the community."

John Publewicz said he went to Millbrook Sunday to stop at the local Stewart's shop and to walk his dog, Sam. The number of photographers took him aback.

"I don't see why they can't keep it private," Publewicz said.

Village resident James Rob-inson had a different take on things.

"I don't think it's a bad thing that the rest of the world is being brought to Millbrook," Robinson said as he waited outside. "I didn't know her or anything, but she seemed nice, and I hear good things about her. I consider her one of our own."

Traffic was a concern

Police were concerned about traffic and disruptions to people living in the vicinity of the church and cemetery.

Richardson's family released no details of the funeral, so the media was stationed both in the Village of Millbrook and at the church in Lithgow.

The Associated Press, New York Post, New York Daily News and ABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News were among the news organizations covering the funeral.

Travel on the one-lane Deep Hollow Road was restricted to residents for much of the day.

The road was shut down during the funeral service and members of the media were relocated to the cemetery.

Dutchess County sheriff's Capt. Paul Piastro said logistically the funeral went well.

"The press were very cooperative and the demonstrators didn't show up," he said.

Piastro said about 20 law enforcement officers plus supervisors were on the scene from his agency and the state police.

He said police agencies routinely assist with funeral arrangements.

"This one is different because of the nature of the person involved," Piastro said.

"We have to make certain everyone is safe and the family is taken care of," he said.

Coverage called essential

Anton Antonowicz, the U.S. correspondent for the Daily Mirror, a British newspaper, said even though the family had requested a private funeral, it needed to be covered.

"They are both stars," he said. "It deals with the loss of a mother for two young teenagers and the loss of a wife."

Antonowicz said it was extremely touching Neeson and his family stood before the media prior to the funeral.

"It was remarkably generous," he said. "In terms of the family, it gave her (Richardson) a final curtain call."

Amanda Mikelberg, a reporter for In Touch Weekly, said tragic events that involve celebrities have to be covered.

Additional Facts

Pope Mass draws big Angola crowds

2009-03-23T03:40:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of thousands of Angolans gathered to hear Pope Benedict XVI celebrate an open-air Mass, a day after a deadly stampede at another event.

Speaking to the biggest crowd of his week-long African visit, the Pope urged Africans to disperse the "clouds of evil" that had prompted years of war.

The "destructive power of civil strife" had dominated for too long, he said.

The service near the capital, Luanda, was the last major event of the Pope's seven-day Africa tour.

Addressing the crowds, the pontiff expressed his "deep sorrow" at the deaths of two women, crushed as crowds tried to get into a stadium where he was appearing on Saturday.

He also wished a speedy recovery to others hurt in the stampede.

Scorching day

Mass on Sunday was celebrated from atop a huge steel stage decorated with pink ribbons in a field which Vatican officials said could hold as many as two million people.

“ When God's law is ridiculed, despised, laughed at, the result can only be destruction and injustice ”
Pope Benedict

Many of the women wore pink sarongs bearing the face of the Pope and Jesus, while others had Pope Benedict's image emblazoned on their T-shirts and baseball caps.

The BBC's Louise Redvers in Luanda says security at Sunday's Mass was extremely tight, but people had still been pulled from the crowd and taken away on stretchers.

On a scorching day, the field gave little shelter from the sun and several people apparently suffered from heat stroke.

'Maelstrom of hatred'

The Pope was said to be "very upset" at the deaths of the two women and began Sunday's Mass by expressing his sadness.

"I express my solidarity to their families and friends and my deep sorrow because this happened while they were coming to see me."

The pontiff then addressed the crowds about Angola's recent history, particularly the years of civil conflict that followed independence from Portugal in 1975.

He said the suffering of Angolans was shared by many across the continent.

"This experience is all too familiar to Africa as a whole - the destructive power of civil strife, the descent into a maelstrom of hatred and revenge, the squandering of the efforts of generations of good people," he said.

"When God's word... is neglected, and when God's law is ridiculed, despised, laughed at, the result can only be destruction and injustice."

Attack on corruption

Huge crowds have turned out at every opportunity to see Pope Benedict during his stay in Angola, where Catholics account for some 55% of the population.

On Saturday, the Pope urged Catholics in Angola to encourage people "living in fear of spirits" into the Church.

He said Catholics should reach out to those who believed in witchcraft and spirits.

Human rights groups say children in Angola have suffered abuse after being accused of possession by spirits.

Earlier on his trip, the Pope launched a powerful attack on corruption, which analysts say is rife in oil-rich Angola.

The Pope arrived in Angola from Cameroon on Friday.

Hamas warns it may hike price for Israeli soldier

2009-03-18T05:38:00.001-07:00

The armed branch of Hamas blamed Israel on Wednesday for the collapse of prisoner swap talks and warned it could hike its demands in return for freeing a soldier captured almost three years ago.

"We put the entire responsibility for blocking a deal on the enemy government," Ezzedine Al-Qassam said in a statement.

"If we have to change our position, it will be to increase our demands and not the other way around," it said.

The statement came a day after Israel's outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Jewish state would not accept terms Hamas set for a prisoner swap, saying the Islamists had hardened their stance and made extreme demands in the last days of the Egyptian-brokered negotiations.

"We have been generous in our conditions and we will not free other prisoners than those we agreed to release," Olmert said on Tuesday.

"In the name of the state of Israel and its government, I declare that there are red lines that we will not cross... We will not cave in to the demands of a terrorist group."

Two main disputes apparently sank the deal -- the number of Palestinians Israel would free in return for its soldier Gilad Shalit, seized by Gaza militants in June 2006, and how many of them would be allowed to return to their homes in the occupied West Bank.

Israel said it agreed to release 320 of 450 Palestinians Hamas wants freed including some responsible for attacks that killed Israelis, something that Israel normally refuses to do.

Egypt has been brokering efforts to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas, which the Jewish state, along with the West, boycotts as a terrorist group.

Pope in Africa says church must help the poor

2009-03-18T05:32:00.001-07:00

Pope Benedict XVI set down strategy for his church in Africa on Wednesday, telling Cameroon's bishops to protect the traditional values of the African family and to spare the poor from the impact of globalization.

He also said that while the Catholic church in Africa is the fastest growing in the world, it faces competition from increasingly popular evangelical movements and "the growing influence of superstitious forms of religion."

The German-born pope, making his first African pilgrimage, also said that the exuberant local African rites should not "obstruct" the liturgy of the Mass.

Benedict began his second day with a meeting with Cameroon President Paul Biya at the presidential palace. Biya is one of Africa's longest-ruling strongmen, in power since 1982 and recently accused by the Amnesty International rights organization of seeking to crush political opposition.

No details of the meeting were immediately given.

The newspaper Le Jour carried a front-page interview with Cameroon Cardinal Christian Tumi asking Biya not to run again in 2011.

From the presidential palace, Benedict was driven to Christ the King Church to speak to Cameroon's 31 bishops and set down their mission.

"In the context of globalization with which we are all familiar, the church takes a particular interest in those who are most deprived," he said. "The bishop's mission leads him to be the defender of the rights of the poor."

He called it the duty of all Christians — particularly those with political and economic responsibilities — to contribute to the building of a "more just world where everyone can live with dignity."

He also worried about the impact of modernity and secularization on the traditional African family, telling the bishops to promote the understanding that marriage is indissoluble.

Madagascar court backs handover

2009-03-18T05:30:00.000-07:00

Madagascar's highest court has backed the handover of power to opposition leader Andry Rajoelina.

It comes a day after military leaders conferred powers to the 34-year-old when President Marc Ravalomanana quit.

But under the current constitution, the former disc jockey is six years too young to be elected president.

Zambia called for the immediate suspension of Madagascar from the African Union (AU) and Southern African Development Community (Sadc).

Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande also told a news conference in Lusaka: "Zambia rejects the unconstitutional change of government in Madagacscar."

Sadc had condemned in advance any direct seizure of power by Mr Rajoelina, while the AU had urged the army not to hand over to him, saying this would amount to a coup.

'Back to normal'

Mr Rajoelina - who has pledged elections within two years - addressed supporters in the capital on Wednesday to promise a return to "normal life, to security and above all national reconciliation", reported Reuters news agency.

MADAGASCAR KEY FACTS

World's fourth largest island

Biodiversity hotspot

Exposed to tropical cyclones

Population 20 million

70% live on less than $1 a day

French colony until 1960

World's No 1 vanilla producer

The constitutional court announced its approval of the power transition in a radio address, after being approached by Mr Rajoelina's supporters.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher, in the capital Antananarivo, says the legal decision is part of a process of legitimising Mr Rajoelina as president after he effectively seized power with the backing of his supporters and the military.

Our correspondent says there is relief on the streets that the Indian Ocean island's power struggle, which has left more than 100 people dead since January, has ended without further bloodshed so far.

'No power vacuum'

According to a legal document obtained by AFP news agency, the constitutional court "proclaims that Mr Andry Rajoelina exercises the attributions of the president of the Republic as stated by the provisions of the constitution".

But according to Malagasy law, the head of parliament's upper house should have taken over after the president's resignation and organised an election within two months.

Mr Rajoelina earlier told the BBC's World Today programme: "There must not be a power vacuum."

He promised elections within the next 18 to 24 months and, asked why polls could not be held earlier, said he did not want "history to repeat itself".

"We'll have to change the constitution," he told the BBC. "We'll have to analyse the law on political parties, the electoral code; we need time to do all this."

Asked about the future of Mr Ravalomanana - whose whereabouts a day after his ousting were unclear - Mr Rajoelina said that was up to the judiciary.

He effectively took charge on Tuesday evening after the army rejected a plan laid out by the departing President Ravalomanana to hand over power to a military directorate.

Mr Rajoelina paraded triumphantly through the streets of the capital, after installing himself at the presidential residence seized by soldiers on Monday night.

He had rejected a proposal at the weekend by Mr Ravalomanana, who was re-elected to a second term in 2006, for a referendum on whether he should serve the remainder of his mandate.

The week's events have marked a dramatic victory for the young politician, who was sacked as mayor of the capital in February.

Josef Fritzl trial: Austrian engineer pleads guilty to all charges

2009-03-18T05:27:00.000-07:00

the Austrian engineer who held his daughter Elisabeth captive in an underground prison for 24 years, today admitted he was responsible for the death of one of the seven children he fathered with her.

In a shock move on the third day of his trial, the 73-year-old calmly pleaded guilty to all of the charges against him, including negligent homicide and enslavement. He had already admitted four of the charges against him: incest, rape, coercion and false imprisonment.

For the first time since his arrest last April, he also expressed regret for what he had done.

Fritzl's lawyer suggested his change of heart came as a result of the psychological impact of yesterday's gruelling court session, in which he watched a recording of Elisabeth giving evidence.

"All I know is that he asked to see a psychiatrist in his cell [after hearing yesterday's testimony] and after that decided to give a full confession," Rudolf Mayer told the Guardian.

Responding to reports that Elisabeth had been in court in person yesterday and today watching proceedings from an adjacent room especially set up for victims of sexual attacks, Mayer said he could not confirm that because it would breach the rules of in camera proceedings.

"You can draw your own conclusions from that. I'm the wrong person to ask. If she was there [yesterday], it could have been the straw that broke the camel's back, in terms of his confession," he told the Guardian.

Today, a 30-strong scrum of photographers followed a van leaving the court after the case was adjourned. The vehicle reportedly contained Elisabeth.

For the first time in the trial, Fritzl arrived in the courtroom without covering his face with a blue folder.

Opening the proceedings, the judge, Andrea Humer, said she wanted to return to Elisabeth's testimony from yesterday.

"Do you have anything to say to me?" Humer asked Fritzl. "I recognise that I am guilty," he responded, adding, "I regret it."

"Why are you saying that now?" asked Humer. "Because of the videotape testimony of my daughter," said Fritzl.

Referring to the murder charge, Humer asked why Fritzl had not done more to help his newborn baby boy, Michael, who died from breathing difficulties shortly after being born in the cellar in 1996.

"Did you not realise he was gravely ill?"

Fritzl responded: "I just overlooked it. I thought the baby was going to survive. I should have realised. It was only yesterday I realised for the first time how cruel I was to Elisabeth. I had never realised it before."

Fritzl had previously admitted burning the child's body in an incinerator in his back garden, but had denied he was responsible for its death. The surviving twin, Alexander, was one of three of Elisabeth's seven children who "appeared" above ground at the Fritzls' house in Amstetten, west of Vienna. Alexander was the last of the three children to be raised by Fritzl and his wife, Rosemarie.

Fritzl also changed his plea from partial to full guilt on the rape charge and admitted the enslavement charge.

For the first two days of his trial, Fritzl had also denied that he enslaved Elisabeth in the purpose-built cellar he constructed under his own home.

The jury has been told that Elisabeth was imprisoned under Ybbsstrasse 40 at the age of 18. Her father forced her into the cellar on 29 August 1984 after putting a cloth over her nose and mouth. He then secured a chain around her stomach so she could not escape. The next day he raped her. As she bore his children over the next 24 years, he repeatedly raped her in front of them, the court heard.

Christiane Burkheiser, the prosecuting lawyer, described the cellar as Fritzl's "playground", where he used his daughter like a "toy".

The case was adjourned until tomorrow morning. The eight members of the jury, assisted by three judges, will decide the sentence after hearing closing statements. Fritzl is likely to spend the rest of his life in jail.

NASA Space Junk Audio Tapes Released

2009-03-14T16:49:00.001-07:00

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station hunkered down this week while waiting to find out if a piece of space junk would hit their temporary abode at about 20,000 mph.

The crew took cover in the Soyuz TMA-13 capsule briefly Thursday morning, while waiting for the object to pass after ground control alerted them that it could hit the station. NASA estimated the piece of space junk to be about 5 inches in diameter, according to a brief online report about the incident.

"With the uncertainty of it, we are wanting to take a conservative approach," a NASA mission control employee at Johnson Space Center in Houston explained to those aboard the space station. "It's a low probability of hit. However, the object is rather large, from what we can track, and if it does happen to hit the ISS, we're talking only about a 10-minute reserve time."

She advised the crew to prepare to close the U.S. segment and hatches.

Crew members asked her to clarify whether they were supposed to board the Soyuz "right now." They were and they did. Within minutes, the crew was alerted that the object had passed.

Then ISS Cmdr. Michael Fincke urged ground crews to do what they could to ensure that the day's activities, including ham radio transmissions to schools, could proceed.

Moments after that, Russian ground control indicated the object had passed, and their U.S. counterparts confirmed the information.

"We are all very happy that [it] has passed with no impact," the NASA employee said. "That's great news."

Earlier this week, NASA announced that people on Earth could now watch the ISS through video showing the outside during some times of day. The live cam was not available as the astronauts hunkered down, but an audio recording of the communications between the astronauts and ground crews is available on NASA's Web site.

It's unclear exactly how close the debris came. If it had hit, the ISS would likely have been crippled. It's likely the crew would have tried to undock from the station and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere aboard the Soyuz.

D.C. Technology Office Scandal Revives Questions of Cronyism

2009-03-14T16:44:00.000-07:00

Last summer, Vivek Kundra, then the D.C. government's chief technology officer, introduced a massive overhaul of the way his agency hired about 300 consultants.

Responding to vendors' complaints that the contracting process was unfair and rife with cronyism, Kundra received $75 million from the D.C. Council to create the Information Technology Staff Augmentation program to foster greater transparency and accountability. Kundra hired a company to help the city weed out unqualified résumés, established a central online database to advertise contracts and disclose who won each one, and posted video solicitations for jobs online. The ITSA program, he told council members during an oversight hearing in August, was a more open and more fair way of doing business in the District.

But this week, the technology agency was rocked by a bribery scandal that brought the allegations of cronyism back into full view and raised questions among consultants about whether anything has changed. Federal authorities have alleged that Yusuf Acar, a manager in charge of information security, conspired with a contractor named Sushil Bansal to bilk the city of money in a scheme that involved "ghost" workers and kickbacks. Both men have been arrested.

Questions submitted to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's office about the technology office's contracting process, including whether the hiring decisions by project managers were reviewed by higher-ranking authorities, were not answered yesterday. Kundra, who left the technology office last month after President Obama appointed him the nation's chief information officer, has not been identified as a suspect in the D.C. case. He has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the federal investigation and declined to comment.

"We have to find the right balance and find the right checks and balances," said council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), who recently took over the committee that oversees the technology office.

City Administrator Dan Tangherlini said the scheme that Acar and Bansal are accused of running predates the implementation of ITSA in October.

Consultants who work with the technology office said yesterday that the bribery allegations emphasize their long-standing complaints that the agency lacks sufficient oversight to ensure that contracts are awarded fairly. They described a system in which project managers have virtually unabridged authority to issue "purchase orders" for consultants and then decide which ones receive the contracts.

Furthermore, they said, some managers making the hiring decisions used to work for the consulting companies that are making bids, and some of the consultants once worked as full-time city employees. Bansal worked for the city before founding Advanced Integrated Technologies about six years ago.

"How can we even trust these people anymore?" asked Laurie Collins, owner of a small information technology consulting firm that has worked with the city. Collins and other consultants complained that a group of fewer than 10 firms win a disproportionate bulk of contracts, even though the city has 97 registered technology vendors.

Bansal's firm won 14 of the 167 contracts, including two awarded by Acar, issued through ITSA so far.

Under ITSA, the city hired Optimal Solutions and Technologies to oversee the contracting process. That company set up a Web site to post job openings and solicit résumés. The résumés of qualified candidates are then sent to D.C. project managers without company affiliations, a tactic aimed at trying to eliminate potential company biases from the managers making the hiring decisions.

But consultants said it is easy for vendors to sidestep that safeguard by telling the managers ahead of time which résumés to look for.

Tallest U.S. building to get new name

2009-03-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

The 110-story Sears Tower, tallest office building in the Western Hemisphere, will be renamed the Willis Tower later this year, global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings announced on Thursday.

Willis said it was leasing multiple floors in the 1,451-foot 442-meter building in downtown Chicago to consolidate several offices. As part of the agreement the building will be renamed the Willis Tower this summer when the move takes place, the company said.

Sears, once the largest U.S. retailer, occupied what was then the world's tallest building as its headquarters after the structure was completed in 1973 but moved out in the early 1990s.

Sears Holdings Corp, controlled by billionaire financier Edward Lampert, has struggled with falling sales and profits as consumers cut back spending in a recession.

But even before the recession hit, the company lost ground to discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc in the clothing business and big-box hardware retailers like Home Depot Inc.

Sears is now the No. 8 U.S. retailer according to STORES Magazine, a publication of the National Retail Federation.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat lists the steel and glass tower as the fifth-tallest completed building in the world. The tallest, at 1,670 feet, is the Taipei 101 building in Taiwan's capital.

Man survives Niagara Falls plunge

2009-03-12T10:27:00.001-07:00

A man has survived despite plunging 180ft (55m) over Niagara Falls and spending 45 minutes in freezing waters resisting his rescuers.

The unnamed man was seen by tourists to scale a wall and leap into the rapids above the falls.

Shortly afterwards he was spotted in the water near the base of the falls clinging to a log.

The man was eventually pulled from the icy waters and taken to hospital with hypothermia and a head injury.

Canadian officials said he was in a critical condition.

Rescue team

A specially trained falls rescue team had rushed to the man's aid after receiving reports of him going over the Horseshoe Falls, one of Niagara's three waterfalls.

However, the man - who was naked - swam away from them toward the middle of the river, police said.

A private helicopter was called in and used the force of its rotor blades to blow him closer to shore.

Firefighter Todd Brunning and another rescue worker then swam about 60 yards, grabbed the man and pulled him to safety, officials said.

Mr Brunning said the man was conscious but unable to talk.

Local resident Phil Richmond, who witnessed the rescue, told The Toronto Star that the man clearly didn't want to be saved.

"It appeared he didn't want to come into shore. I thought he was an idiot to be honest with you," he said.

"It looked like he was swimming, like he was one of those polar bear nuts who swim naked. I didn't realise he had gone over the falls."

It is against Canadian law to go over Niagara Falls, but police would not say if the man would be charged.

Very few people who have been swept over the falls have survived.

In 2003, American tourist Kirk Jones plunged over the Horseshoe Falls in what he claimed was "a spur of the moment act", and lived.

In 1960 a seven-year-old boy also survived the fall after the boat he was in capsized upstream.

Understanding the 'Scholar Pope'

2009-03-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

Nearly four years have passed since the election of Pope Benedict XVI. They have been marked by several eruptions of controversy. David Willey reflects on the performance so far of the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

Does the Pope live in a bubble?

Seated at his desk in his huge high-ceilinged penthouse study at the top of the Apostolic Palace, looking out over the bell towers, cupolas, monuments and rooftops of Rome, Pope Benedict may well reflect with satisfaction that nowadays the head of the Catholic Church is neither a "Prisoner in the Vatican" nor the "Pope-King," as some of his predecessors were called.

But he had to admit during a closed meeting with Rome's parish priests the other day that, cloistered in his frescoed palace, he does feel a bit remote, a bit distant from their lives and the daily challenges they face as they minister to a rapidly changing and an increasingly multicultural and multi-faith society in the Eternal City.

Earlier this week, on a rare official visit to Rome's City Hall, Benedict used a good phrase to describe the Italian capital. "This singular metropolis," he called it.

Rome really is an unusual place, for squeezed within its teeming metropolitan area is the Pope's surviving sovereign territory, occupying an area the size of 40 football pitches. A walled fortress complex and a park is all that remains of the former papal states of central Italy.

Behind city walls

Inside Vatican City quiet and order reign.

Strolling through the Pope's manicured private gardens, under the ever-watchful eye of Vatican gendarmes, you can still hear the distant roar of Rome's incessant traffic just outside the walls.

Next to the offices of the governor of Vatican City is the branch line railway station where no passenger trains ever arrive, but duty free goods for Vatican employees enter the Pope's domain in a sealed wagon once a week.

Continuing around the back of Saint Peter's Basilica you come upon the former Mint (the Pope used to coin his own currency) and the kitchen garden and hothouses, which provide vegetables and cut flowers for the Pope's dining table and honey for his breakfast.

Vatican City also has its own Post Office and postage stamps, its own radio station and newspaper, the Osservatore Romano, a publishing house, a world famous library, and a dispensary and chemists shop run by monks and nuns where, incidentally, condoms are not stocked.

'Papal gaffes'

It is the Pope's Museums and the Sistine Chapel which attract the biggest crowds of all.

Some four million visitors every year - far more than those attending papal audiences - pay their entry fees and swarm through the museum turnstiles, contributing to the upkeep of these unique collections of paintings, frescoes and sculptures reflecting the changing tastes of papal patrons of art down the centuries.

Well, to come back to the question I asked before. Does this strange gilded cage in which the Pope spends his life mean that he has become so detached from the ordinary concerns of the majority of his flock - so immersed in his theological and academic studies - that he is out of touch with ordinary Catholic believers?

I ask the question only because of a series of acts or remarks which have aroused surprise and criticism and have been described (even in the Catholic press) as "papal gaffes".

There was a reference to the historic connection between Islam and violence which caused serious offence in many Muslim countries.

There was a decision to readmit to the church a controversial traditionalist bishop. Benedict was "unaware" about the bishop's record of anti-Semitism, an official Vatican statement said.

In a letter addressed to the world's Roman Catholic bishops, Pope Benedict admits the case has been mishandled.

And then there was the unfortunate promotion to bishop - quickly followed by resignation - of a controversial Austrian priest.

The priest's remarks about Hurricane Katrina being due to divine displeasure at the sins of the citizens of New Orleans had caused a mini-revolt in the Catholic church in Austria.

The answer appears to be that Pope Benedict runs a very tight ship and that he relies upon a tiny group of close advisers to help him make his decisions.

This may mean that sometimes the normal bureaucratic procedures, the checks and balances operating within the Secretariat of State (the nerve centre of the central government of the Catholic Church) are not being carried out correctly.

'Scholar Pope'

But meanwhile, a new encyclical letter by the Pope - his highest form of teaching - is about to be published.

It will deal with the moral and social issues behind the global economic crisis. He says it is proving more difficult to write than he first imagined because of the unexpected complexity of the meltdown.

But the Pope usually finds the right words in the end.

Standing on a balcony during his visit to Rome's City Hall, built over the site of a long vanished temple, Benedict sympathised with the plight of modern Romans who are losing jobs and suffering from the economic downturn just like everyone else.

The "Scholar-Pope" was unable to resist the temptation of quoting a line written in Latin, not from the Bible, but by the Roman poet Ovid 2,000 years ago: "Perfer et obdura: multo graviora tulisti."

"Endure and resist," he urged. "In the past you have overcome much more difficult situations."

Aid workers kidnapped as Darfur suffers first abduction of Westerners

2009-03-12T10:21:00.001-07:00

The humanitarian disaster area of Darfur witnessed its first kidnapping of Westerners today, a development which comes amid growing intimidation of aid agencies by the Sudanese government.

Three aid workers affiliated to the Belgian branch of the Doctors Without Borders group were snatched in a rural area 125 miles from the city of al-Fasher, the group said.

The aid workers - a Canadian nurse, an Italian doctor and a French coordinator - were snatched with two Sudanese guards from the group's offices in the Saraf Umra area yesterday. The guards were later released, but the aid workers were still being held today.

It is thought unlikely that the kidnappings were carried out by the government itself, but they come amid a growing atmosphere of intimidation and violence aimed at Western aid groups trying to provide assistance in Darfur.

Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese President, has expelled 13 aid groups - including the French and Dutch branches of Doctors Without Borders - in response to his indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

The ICC warrant accuses Mr al-Bashir of orchestrating atrocities against civilians in Darfur, where his Arab-led government has been battling ethnic African rebels since 2003. Up to 300,000 people have been killed, and 2.7 million have been driven from their homes.

Many feared the warrant would leave the foreign community in Sudan a target for anger and revenge attacks. Sudanese officials have, in turn, warned that vigilantes could target foreigners, though they promised to try to protect them.

The Belgian branch of Doctors Without Borders, and the Swiss and the Spanish branches, were not covered by the expulsion order and all three stayed on in the troubled Sudanese region. However Christopher Stokes, director of the Belgian branch, confirmed today that it would also pull its staff out until the seized personnel were released.

“We are trying to negotiate for the moment the release of our colleagues,” Mr Stokes said. “The only people that will stay behind are the people dealing with trying to secure the freedom of our colleagues.”

Mr al-Bashir ordered the 13 expelled aid groups to leave Darfur by March 5.

Hassabo Abdel-Rahman, of the government humanitarian affairs office, said the three kidnapped were able to call their colleagues after they were taken to assure they were in good health.

He said the two Sudanese guards were released after midnight and found by police. They were interrogated but were unable to identify who kidnapped them, he added.

“It’s an isolated and immoral act,” Mr Abdel-Rahman said, claiming an unknown group was behind the abduction.

Iraq Journalist Sentenced to 3 Years for Throwing Shoes at Bush

2009-03-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

An Iraqi journalist was sentenced to three years in prison for throwing shoes at former President George W. Bush.

Muntazer al-Zaidi, 30, appeared at the Iraq Central Criminal Court in Baghdad today and pleaded not guilty to charges of aggression against a foreign leader during an official visit, President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said on the party’s Web site.

The correspondent for Al-Baghdadiya, an Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, threw his shoes at Bush on Dec. 14 during a news conference in the offices of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Bush ducked and wasn’t struck.

Al-Zaidi said he wasn’t trying to kill Bush and that he threw the shoes because he was unable to control his emotions when he saw the man who ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He was criticized for his actions by the Iraqi government, while winning acclaim in the Arab world and triggering similar incidents around the globe. In Arab culture, throwing shoes is an expression of disrespect.

Al-Zaidi’s trial opened Feb. 19 and was adjourned to allow the court time to determine the nature of Bush’s trip. Iraqi law specifies a sentence of as many as 15 years for attacking a foreign leader during an official visit, while insulting a foreign head of state carries a sentence of at least two years or a fine.

In other instances of shoe-throwing, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was targeted with a shoe last week as he traveled in the city of Urmiye, according to the Guardian newspaper.

On Feb. 2, a student hurled his shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as he gave a speech at Cambridge University near the end of three-day trip to Britain. A 27-year-old was charged with a public-order offense and risks six months in prison and a 5,000- pound ($6,884) fine as a maximum sentence.

On Jan. 5, demonstrators took to the streets of London to protest Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip and tossed shoes at the gates of Downing Street.

Mugabe pays tribute at Susan Tsvangirai memorial service

2009-03-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

Robert Mugabe, today described the death of Susan Tsvangirai as an act of God and urged Zimbabweans to support her husband by halting violence.

Speaking at a memorial service for the wife of Zimbabwae's prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe wished his rival-turned-coalition partner strength for the nation-building work ahead.

The body of Susan Tsvangirai, who was killed aged 50 in a car crash last Friday, rested in a closed, flower-draped coffin. She supported her husband through years of political struggle against the veteran president.

Mugabe, who formed a unity government with Tsvangirai in February, told 1,000 government and political leaders and diplomats at the Harare Methodist church he was saddened by the death.

"This is a difficult moment for our colleague," Reuters reported Mugabe as saying at the service. "He has lost a partner, and we must all rally to support him and lessen his burden ... This is the hand of God. "To our supporters, we want to say violence should stop. That's what [Susan Tsvangirai] would have wanted: for us to coexist peacefully. We have just started a new life after years of fighting each other and insulting each other. We have said: let's give peace and harmony a chance, and work together."

The prime minister and his children attended the service, and later some 15,000 Zimbabweans sang hymns. Tsvangirai, who turned 57 on Tuesday, addressed the crowd briefly, saying: "Let's celebrate her existence as God's gift to me and you."

Mugabe said the wives of politicians played important supporting roles, noting that Susan Tsvangirai was by her husband's side when Mugabe administered the prime minister's oath, 11 on February.

"We are sincerely saddened by the death of Susan and we hope that Morgan will remain strong," Mugabe said at the church. He added that the new coalition government had just begun efforts to rebuild a country beset by political and economic crises.

Mugabe reluctantly agreed to share power with Tsvangirai only under extreme pressure from the leaders of neighbouring countries after a year of political violence and deadlock followed a presidential election in which Tsvangirai won more votes. Tsvangirai pulled out of a runoff because of state-sponsored attacks on his supporters, and Mugabe claimed victory despite widespread criticism that the second round had been neither free nor fair.

Zimbabwe's long history of political violence blamed on Mugabe's forces led to speculation that Friday's crash was no accident. Morgan Tsvangirai, who was injured in the crash, tried to quell the rumors on Monday, telling mourners there was "no foul play".

Susan Tsvangirai's father, who addressed mourners at the church on behalf of the family, spoke of sitting down with his son-in-law recently to discuss how power-sharing would work. Emanuel Mhundwa said he had hoped to see his daughter help the prime minister "bring peace and stability to the country".

Hazel Makumbo, a 22-year-old Harare resident who joined the crowd outside the church today, said she wanted to pay her respects to a woman who "was helping Morgan in trying to bring democracy and good things to Zimbabwe".

In recent days, thousands of Zimbabweans have paid their respects at the Tsvangirai home in the capital.

The outpouring of sympathy is evidence of support for Tsvangirai, but also represents a release for emotions that have been building up over months of economic collapse and political unrest that has seen hundreds of activists jailed, tortured and killed.

Zimbabwe's unity government faces the world's highest official inflation rate, a hunger crisis that has left most of its people dependent on foreign handouts, and a cholera epidemic that is blamed on the collapse of a once enviable health and sanitation system.

The United Nations said yesterday the number of cholera deaths had topped 4,000, with more than 89,000 cases.

Obama releases secret Bush anti-terror memos

2009-03-02T15:52:00.000-08:00

The Obama administration threw open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets Monday, revealing anti-terror memos that claimed exceptional search-and-seizure powers and divulging that the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations and other treatment of terror suspects.

The Justice Department released nine legal opinions showing that, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration determined that certain constitutional rights would not apply during the coming fight. Within two weeks, government lawyers were already discussing ways to wiretap U.S. conversations without warrants.

The Bush administration eventually abandoned many of the legal conclusions, but the documents themselves had been closely held. By releasing them, President Barack Obama continued a house-cleaning of the previous administration's most contentious policies.

"Too often over the past decade, the fight against terrorism has been viewed as a zero-sum battle with our civil liberties," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a speech a few hours before the documents were released. "Not only is that school of thought misguided, I fear that in actuality it does more harm than good."

The Obama administration also acknowledged in court documents Monday that the CIA destroyed 92 videos involving terror suspects, including interrogations — far more than had been known. Congressional Democrats and other critics have charged that some of the harsh interrogation techniques amounted to torture, a contention President George W. Bush and other Bush officials rejected.

The new administration pledged on Monday to begin turning over documents related to the videos to a federal judge and to make as much information public as possible.

The legal memos written by the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel show a government grappling with how to wage war on terrorism in a fast-changing world. The conclusion, reiterated in page after page of documents, was that the president had broad authority to set aside constitutional rights.

Fourth Amendment protections against unwarranted search and seizure, for instance, did not apply in the United States as long as the president was combatting terrorism, the Justice Department said in an Oct. 23, 2001, memo.

"First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo wrote, adding later: "The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically."

On Sept. 25, 2001, Yoo discussed possible changes to the laws governing wiretaps for intelligence gathering. In that memo, he said the government's interest in keeping the nation safe following the terrorist attacks might justify warrantless searches.

That memo did not specifically attempt to justify the government's warrantless wiretapping program, but it provided part of the foundation.

Yoo, now a professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, did not return messages seeking comment.

The memos reflected a belief within the Bush administration that the president had broad powers that could not be checked by Congress or the courts. That stance, in one form or another, became the foundation for many policies: holding detainees at Guantanamo Bay, eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without warrants, using tough new CIA interrogation tactics and locking U.S. citizens in military brigs without charges.

Obama has pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay prison within a year. He halted the CIA's intensive interrogation program. And last week, prosecutors moved the terrorism case against U.S. resident Ali Al-Marri, a suspected al-Qaida sleeper agent held in a military brig, to a civilian courthouse.

A criminal prosecutor is wrapping up an investigation of the destruction of the tapes of interrogations.

Monday's acknowledgment of videotape destruction, however, involved a civil lawsuit filed in New York by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The CIA can now identify the number of videotapes that were destroyed," said the letter submitted in that case by Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin. "Ninety-two videotapes were destroyed."

It is not clear what exactly was on the recordings. The government's letter cites interrogation videos, but the lawsuit against the Defense Department also seeks records related to treatment of detainees, any deaths of detainees and the CIA's sending of suspects overseas, known as "extraordinary rendition."

At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters he hadn't spoken to the president about the report, but he called the news about the videotapes "sad" and said Obama was committed to ending torture while also protecting American values.

ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said the CIA should be held in contempt of court for holding back the information for so long.

"The large number of videotapes destroyed confirms that the agency engaged in a systematic attempt to hide evidence of its illegal interrogations and to evade the court's order," Singh said.

CIA spokesman George Little said the agency "has certainly cooperated with the Department of Justice investigation. If anyone thinks it's agency policy to impede the enforcement of American law, they simply don't know the facts."

The details of interrogations of terror suspects, and the existence of tapes documenting those sessions, have become the subject of long fights in a number of different court cases. In the trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, prosecutors initially claimed no such recordings existed, then acknowledged after the trial was over that two videotapes and one audiotape had been made.

The Dassin letter, dated March 2 to Judge Alvin Hellerstein, says the CIA is now gathering more details for the lawsuit, including a list of the destroyed records, any secondary accounts that describe the destroyed contents and the identities of those who may have viewed or possessed the recordings before they were destroyed.

But the lawyers also note that some of that information may be classified, such as the names of CIA personnel who viewed the tapes.

The separate criminal investigation includes interrogations of al-Qaida lieutenant Abu Zubaydah and another top al-Qaida leader. Tapes of those interrogations were destroyed, in part, the Bush administration said, to protect the identities of the government questioners at a time the Justice Department was debating whether or not the tactics used during the interrogations were legal.

Former CIA director Michael Hayden acknowledged that waterboarding — simulated drowning — was used on three suspects, including the two whose interrogations were recorded.

John Durham, a senior career prosecutor in Connecticut, is leading the criminal investigation, out of Virginia, and had asked that he be given until the end of February to wrap up his work before requests for information in the civil lawsuit were dealt with.

TV Watching Doesn't Fast-Track Baby's Skills

2009-03-02T15:45:00.000-08:00

The next time you pass by a shelf full of videos claiming to be educationally stimulating for babies, you might want to think twice before pulling out your wallet.

A new study suggests that watching television won't improve a baby's language or cognitive skills, even if they watch several hours a day.

"TV, in and of itself, doesn't seem to have an influence on cognition at age 3," said the study's lead author, Marie Evans Schmidt, a research associate at the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston.

Results of the study were published in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics.

In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics began recommending that children under 2 years of age not have any screen time at all. But, more than two-thirds of American kids in the under-2 age group watch TV daily, and about 25 percent of those kids also have a TV in their bedrooms, according to background information in the study.

Almost 30 percent of parents responding to a recent survey said they felt TV or DVD viewing by children younger than 2 was educational and "good for the child's brain."

To assess whether or not TV has an effect -- positive or negative -- on babies' brain development, Schmidt and her colleagues included almost 900 children who were assessed at birth, six months of age, and then again at age 3. The researchers also asked the mothers to complete questionnaires on the baby's TV-viewing habits at six months, one year and two years. On average, the children watched 1.2 hours of TV a day.

After adjusting the data for numerous factors -- such as maternal age, income, education, marital status, whether there were siblings in the home, and duration of breast-feeding -- the researchers found that TV viewing wasn't associated with improvements in vocabulary testing or in visual motor abilities tests.

"I don't know why people think TV is good for babies. It's probably the way those products have been marketed," Schmidt said. "Although our study showed no evidence of harm, parents should be aware that infants watching TV may be at risk of obesity, sleep disturbances and possibly attention problems. We don't want this study to be viewed as a license for babies to watch TV because they won't be harmed. It might be that the effects don't show up until children are older."

The Jonas Brothers: It's full scream ahead

2009-02-26T14:06:00.000-08:00

How big are the Jonas Brothers? One day here last week, not knowing the cause, some floors of Rockefeller Center were evacuated when the floor shaking and screams of the lads' fans during a TV shoot sent trepidations through the tenants.

It's hard to capture just how raucous the teenage choir for the Jonas Brothers is. But here, earlier in the day, they are on the set of CBS' "The Early Show." Cameras have been set up outdoors on Fifth Avenue to allow a few hundred teenage girls to stand close when Nick, 16, Joe, 19, and Kevin, 21, promote their film that opened this weekend: "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience."

The girls have been here for hours, their devotion such that many would have camped overnight had it not been for stinging winter winds whipping the city. Those who got here first are staked out along a long, waist-high barricade rail, and they're not giving an inch of real estate to their fellow females, now 10 and 20 rows deep and jostling for position. Outside of extra manpower for security, the television crew and a very few at-a-distance dads, there's not a male in sight.

But none of that matters now. The Jonas Brothers are here. You don't know because you see them. You know from all the pandemonium breaking loose, measured in decibels. Girls' screams. Followed by girls' heads bouncing, arms reaching, cellphone cameras flashing, and signs, flowers and presents thrust lovingly toward the boys.

During a frantic two-day ride-along with the teen pop phenom on the publicity tour for their film, it's like this at every stop.

Crisscrossing town in a three-black-SUV caravan from their base at the Trump International Hotel, the boys would appear on "Regis and Kelly," "The Early Show," "Good Morning America," Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, stop by an unveiling of their wax likenesses at Madame Tussauds, tape an MTV special, then be at the "Saturday Night Live" stages by late afternoon each day to rehearse the skits and songs they would perform there that weekend. As usual, they were extremely well behaved and extremely well dressed.

If that seems a lot, consider they are just coming off a sold-out concert tour on which their 3-D movie was made, are filming a Disney Channel series to premiere in May and were invited guests in the Obama White House on inauguration night -- after having been the Bushes' guests there just before leave-taking. They were jamming on stage with Stevie Wonder at the Grammys, where they were a best new artist nominee. They had just sold out an impromptu concert at Ryman Auditorium on their first visit to Nashville and were named "breakthrough artist" for the American Music Awards, where they also performed. They are the only artist to ever have three albums in the top 10 of SoundScan at the same time and the first artist to have six consecutive iTunes No. 1 tracks. All this while watching their current album, "A Little Bit Longer," reach 1.5 million.

Not bad for guys who hardly more than two years ago had a record that wouldn't sell and "were just four brothers [they have an 8-year-old brother, Frankie] in one bedroom," Kevin says to each talk show host.

The 200 teen girls chosen to be in the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center for the MTV taping know a lot about the Jonas Brothers. They know the wild reception the boys received at "The Early Show" that morning since they've been trading texts with the girls there. They know the time the Jonases left their hotel because the pod of girls camped there were texting as well. Then there are "the runners," the girls sprinting around Manhattan from one Jonas sighting to the next, keying into their phones as they go.

For the MTV opening scene, the band is hidden behind curtains as if anyone needed to build more angst and anticipation into these girls. When the boys are unveiled one by one, the resulting scream is so deafening, you can hardly hear one of them for all of them, and they are all saying the same thing, something like this: "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I can't believe it's them. They're so beautiful." Then, depending on which of the brothers is closest, "I love you, Kevin." "I love you, Joe." "I love you, Nick. . . ."

But all this adulation has caused a very real problem. For one thing, the production crew's members can't do their work because they can't hear one another even in their headsets. And then comes the building evacuation.

The Jonas Brothers' mom, Denise, 41, a former singer and sign language teacher, watches the scene from a monitor in the control room. She laughs each time she sees one of the boys having fun on camera, savoring it like a parent who has just seen her child score a soccer goal, except that for her it has been like watching all three of her sons score goals, every day for nearly two years now.

The boys stay remarkably composed through it all.Appreciative. Enjoying it. Beyond their music, another thing that has so endeared them to their fans -- and their fans' parents -- is that they genuinely seem to be the nicest young men you could imagine.

"I am always impressed at how well they hold themselves," Denise says. "I'm a crazy Italian, hands flying. I can't help it. I go crazy at their concerts. They are more like their dad that way."

On this tour careening around town, along with their father, Kevin Sr., 44, a former Christian minister and songwriter and musician who co-manages his sons, there's co-manager Phil McIntyre, the director of their production company, their stylist and her assistant, their photographer, three publicists, a teacher and at least five security men.

When offstage, Denise might be with the boys, whispering in their ears or adjusting Nick's collar. Kevin Sr. tends to stand back a bit, watching over it all as he quietly takes calls on his cellphone.

Still, "when they walked out at MTV, I choked up when the crowd exploded," said Kevin Sr. "That's normal for the boys, but it's never normal to Dad and Mom. They are really good kids. They are healthy. They are normal. Everywhere I go, before I leave, someone grabs me and says, 'I see it all, and they are so polite, so courteous, so thankful.' I hope we had something to do with that. But I'm really glad because it is still important to me that they are really good boys."

The songs that the "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience" covers are up-tempo to maintain the energy and frenzy and include most of their hits, such as "Burnin' Up," "Hold On" and "S.O.S." so the audience can sing along. The brothers are joined onstage for a song each by teen stars Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato.

"I wanted to put you not only in the first row of the concert but also literally on stage," says director Bruce Hendricks, at different times setting perspective as if you were a musician, a background singer or sharing a mike with one of the brothers. He does that amid all the lights, colors, backdrops and showmanship of a teen rock concert as Joe takes center-stage vocals and runs the ramps like a young Jagger, Kevin riffs close up on lead guitar and Nick moves with his vocals from guitar to drums -- all to the accompaniment of those screaming girls.

The film lets you rest between musical sets, cutting to behind-the-scenes passages of the rarefied world in which these three brothers now live. The most instructive is a drive with them into Times Square.

It seems the brothers had told their fans that after a Madison Square Garden concert last August, they would be in Times Square at midnight to be first to purchase their album "A Little Bit Longer" when it came on sale. As their car enters, they see Times Square is shut down by a crowd estimated at up to 25,000. "I've never seen a street crowd like it," says Hendricks. "I don't think they or anybody expected it, and you genuinely see the awe on the boy's faces. . . . I think they feel a little bit amazed by it all."

Box office expectations for the movie would have to be compared to Cyrus' "Best of Both Worlds" 3-D concert movie of last year, also directed by Hendricks, which earned $65 million after its one-week run was extended because of demand.

It wasn't always hyperventilating fans and nonstop press. They grew up in Wyckoff, N.J., "around great musicians within the Christian music world," says Kevin Sr. "They grew up in our van, Kevin, Joe and, for a while, Nick, traveling around" while he and Denise took Christian singing groups on the road.

"When Nick was 3, I noticed he had something special," he recalls. "This was me as a music instructor looking at a 3-year-old who could do things my college students couldn't do. About this same time, Nick came up to me and kind of looked up like he was trying to see in his head and he said, 'Do you hear that? Do you hear that music? It's always playing in my head.' "

Not long after, Kevin Sr. tried an experiment with Nick. Instead of a bedtime story, one night he put Nick to bed listening to Stevie Wonder's "Definitive Collection." "And from that night on, he begged every night for Stevie Wonder," says Kevin Sr.

With a voice equal to his musicality, Nick was "discovered" one day singing while his mother was getting her hair cut. Before he was 10, Nick had performed on Broadway in "Annie Get Your Gun," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Les Misérables" and soon signed a recording contract with Columbia Records, using Wonder's "Superstition" as his audition song.

Joe saw how much fun Nick was having, so he auditioned and at 12 was cast in Baz Luhrmann's "La Bohème." During that time, Kevin picked up the guitar and taught himself to play, and "it has never left his hands," says Kevin Sr. When Columbia heard their songwriting collaboration, it optioned Kevin and Joe into Nick's contract.

But the record company couldn't find the right platform to launch them. Nick's solo record was put on the shelf, and the brothers' first group album, after more than a dozen release date delays, came out in August 2006 and sold fewer than 15,000 copies.

Kevin Sr. thinks the problem was radio stations not knowing where to position the band. In any case, the group and Columbia agreed to part ways. The family's savings were gone, and the group was making ends meet selling T-shirts at gigs.

Then came a new record deal with Disney's Hollywood Records. Being a Disney company with all the Magic Kingdom has to offer, Hollywood Records could target the clean tween market that the Jonas Brothers' music fit and that Disney already ruled with the runaway success of Miley Cyrus. It also had Radio Disney to air the boys' songs and television, the Disney Channel, for their videos.

When Disney placed the Jonas Brothers as guest stars on Cyrus' "Hannah Montana," the show earned its highest rating. When the brothers were chosen to open for Cyrus on her wildly popular 2007 "Best of Both Worlds" tour, there could not have been a better promotional campaign.

Their "Jonas Brothers" record was released almost one year to the day after their previous album and has now sold 1.8 million copies worldwide.

Few regard them as music innovators, but critics have generally been kind. As Mikael Wood wrote in The Times, "They marry the high-energy crunch of today's emo acts to the blue-eyed R&B that has motored countless groups of young white men to boy-band success. That makes the songs on 'The Jonas Brothers' feel fresh and familiar at the same time."

When the Jonas Brothers' musical future was uncertain, "I never stopped believing it was real," says Kevin Sr. "I'm a songwriter. I'm a musician. And the biggest sign to me was that everywhere [the boys] went, the reaction was more intense that anything I had seen. Before there were smaller crowds. Today it's 20 or 30,000. But it was always the same reaction. Especially girls went crazy."

The 3-D movie opens with girls-chasing-them scenes in a light homage to the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night." The scene and their current publicity campaign raise the questions they well know: What's next for the band? A flash and then flameout like so many other heartthrob groups before? Will they be consumed by their own nonstop PR? Or will they endure?

They're certainly not slowing down. In addition to their upcoming Disney Channel series, look for a new studio album release this year, followed by a world concert tour.

Their supporters believe that what sets the Jonas Brothers apart from most of the rest of this category is: They write their own songs. They play their own instruments. They were discovered through their music and now write and produce music for others.

Performing with Stevie Wonder at the Grammys, playing "Superstition" again was a meaningful moment. Even more so when Wonder said "yes" to playing the Jonas Brothers' "Burnin' Up" with them there. He said he already had their song on his iPod.

Their father has a ministerial way of gauging these things. He knows their craft is evolving. "Musically it is yet to be decided. Time will tell whether or not their music will last. But I know what is there and they are capable of. I feel like there is a lot more there," says Kevin Sr.

Then he adds: "They know the journey can be short or it can be long. The odds are, in their world that it is short-lived. . . . But enjoy this and really appreciate the people that are making this possible for them. Be good boys in it but enjoy the journey because it doesn't happen often."

Why Normund Gentle Is The Greatest 'American Idol' Contestant Ever

2009-02-26T14:03:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, after Normund Gentle (or, if you prefer, Nick Mitchell) inexplicably slipped into the "American Idol" top 36, we published a piece in which we called him "either the most annoying contestant in the show's illustrious eight-year history, or the most brilliant." At the time, we weren't really sure which was appropriate.

Now, after Wednesday night's vampy, campy performance of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," we've made up our minds: Gentle is the greatest contestant in "American Idol" history.

Here's why: For starters, he's infinitely more interesting than anyone else in the "Idol" annals, despite the fact that he isn't even real — or, more specifically, because he isn't real. In Normund Gentle (who has been identified on the show as "Norman Gentle" but, according to his Web site, is actually "Normund"), Mitchell has created a cabaret caricature that pokes fun at everything the show is about: the over-the-top emoting, the cheesy numbers, the fact that this is basically a beauty contest.

Gentle is definitely not beautiful: He's gawky, his short shorts ride uncomfortably high, he wears a headband, and yet, he survives. He is cheesiness personified, his performances so overly emotional that they border on being terrible (like, during last night's performance, when he literally got on his knees and begged the audience — and the judges — to let him stay on the show). He is, if one is being generous, an incredible slab of performance art ... either you get him or you don't. He is multifaceted. Complex.

Having said all that, you cannot merely write Gentle off as a "joke," despite all evidence to the contrary. This is because Gentle — or Mitchell — can actually sing. For proof of this, check out his version of "Amazing Grace" during the "Idol" auditions, or the extended, lung-sapping "Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" he capped his performance with last night. Sure, he did this after chucking his glasses into the audience, pawing at the "American Idol" sign and wading into the studio audience like a lost puppy, but still, you cannot deny that he has pipes (and at least he doesn't use them to shatter eardrums like theater-trained emo kid Adam Lambert). He is not merely a one-trick pony.

Finally, as if everything he's done up to this point is not proof enough, Wednesday night's performance only proved that Gentle (and, by default, Mitchell) has absolutely no pretenses about actually winning "Idol." In fact, he seems hell-bent on single-handedly destroying it. His routine brought last night's show to a screeching halt, it left the judges agape, and it had the audience in complete hysterics. It's as if, in one moment, everyone watching, judging or producing "Idol" realized, "Wow, this thing really is ridiculous." He blew holes through the show's entire premise. As opposed to going out there and singing for his very life (which everyone else did, with underwhelming results), Gentle took the stage in a white tuxedo jacket and decided to screw around. It was either the work of a madman, a mastermind or both.

And here's the thing: Gentle's act could continue. Despite Simon Cowell's urging that he be voted off (or, probably, because of it), Gentle may survive. He's already being championed by the Vote for the Worst folks, and he seems like a shoo-in to receive the votes of every single person in this country who hates "American Idol" and wants to see it brought to its knees. And Gentle could be the person who does just that. Or he may just be sent packing Thursday night (February 26) — who knows?

Either way, he's already attained greatness. It just depends on your definition of the word.

Rihanna Photographed in Mexico

2009-02-26T14:01:00.000-08:00

Rihanna has resurfaced.

After being shuttled to various locations over the past two weeks to protect her privacy, the 21-year-old star was photographed this weekend on the beach in Punta Mita, Mexico. She previously logged short stints in Los Angeles and her native Barbados.

Photos of her south-of-the-border sojourn ran in today's print edition of the New York Daily News and quickly turned up online. She does not appear to show any of the bruising that was so clearly visible in her leaked police photo.

The images were reportedly snapped at a private villa on Saturday, a day after she celebrated her milestone birthday in L.A. Aside from a few backseat shots, it's the first time Rihanna's been photographed in public since the Feb. 8 altercation with Chris Brown that left her hospitalized.

Yesterday the L.A. district attorney's office said the investigation was still open and no decision on charges has been made.

Injured good Samaritan ticketed for jaywalking

2009-02-26T13:41:00.000-08:00

DENVER – A good Samaritan who helped push three people out of the path of a pickup truck before being struck and injured has gotten a strange reward for his good deed: A jaywalking ticket.

Family members said 58-year-old bus driver Jim Moffett and another man were helping two elderly women cross a busy Denver street in a snowstorm when he was hit Friday night.

Moffett suffered bleeding in the brain, broken bones, a dislocated shoulder and a possible ruptured spleen. He was in serious but stable condition Wednesday.

The Colorado State Patrol issued the citation. Trooper Ryan Sullivan said that despite Moffett's intentions, jaywalking contributed to the accident.

Moffett had been driving his bus when the two women got off. In the interest of safety, he got out and, together with another passenger, helped the ladies cross.

Moffett's stepson, Ken McDonald, said the driver of the pickup plowed into his stepfather, but not before Moffett pushed the two women out of the way.

When he awoke in intensive care, he learned of the ticket. "His reaction was dazed and confused. I was a little angry," said McDonald.

The other man also was cited for jaywalking, while the pickup driver was cited with careless driving that led to injury. Sullivan said the two elderly women haven't been cited but the investigation is ongoing.

Greeks hunt for convicts who escaped by helicopter

2009-02-23T13:39:00.001-08:00

ATHENS, Greece – The helicopter company offered "escapes ... to idyllic destinations." But this wasn't the kind of flight it had in mind.

For the second time in nearly three years, a notorious bank robber was lifted out of a prison where he was being held along with his Albanian accomplice in a rented chopper amid fire from prison guards. Within hours, hundreds of people had joined more than a dozen fan clubs on Facebook celebrating the pair.

Police launched a massive manhunt Monday for Vassilis Paleokostas — the robber hailed by some Greeks as a modern-day Robin Hood — and accomplice Alket Rizaj, throwing up roadblocks and checking the abandoned helicopter for fingerprints and DNA.

Police also announced the arrest of four prison guards and the helicopter pilot, who was found bound, gagged and with a hood over his head. The pilot said he had been hijacked by a man and a woman brandishing an assault rifle and a hand grenade.

The chartered helicopter was found abandoned near a highway north of Athens Sunday. It had a bullet hole in its fuel tank from the gunfight that broke out with guards during the escape, police said.

A local resident captured part of the prison break on amateur video. The grainy footage shows a helicopter rising from the prison and flying off across the city after shots are heard.

Flying low to avoid radar detection, the helicopter swooped down onto Greece's main high-security Korydallos prison Sunday afternoon, and Paleokostas and Rizaj scrambled up a rope ladder onto the roof.

Gunshots rang out, but the chopper rose almost languidly into the gray winter sky to cheers from prison inmates.

Less than three years ago, the same two men organized an almost identical escape from the Korydallos prison, located in a densely populated western Athens suburb of the same name.

They repeated their feat the day before they had been due to appear in court for their first escape, to the deep embarrassment of Greek judicial authorities and the embattled conservative government.

But while the government scrambled to put on a show of force and vowed measures to prevent further escapes, some Greeks cheered the escaped inmates.

Within hours, hundreds of people had joined more than a dozen fan clubs for Paleokostas on Facebook: "Paleokostas - Korydallos: 2-0" was one of the most popular. The pre-existing "Paleokostas you must escape again (Greek Prison Break)" gained 800 more members, taking it to more than 4,500.

Escapes from prison or police custody are not uncommon in Greece, but most occur when inmates are allowed out on furlough and few are as spectacular as this.

Many Greeks questioned how such an escape could have occurred a second time, particularly since authorities had promised to increase security after the two men flew out of prison in a chopper in June 2006.

After that escape, Paleokostas remained at large until August 2008. He is believed to have masterminded the June 2008 kidnapping of prominent industrialist Giorgos Mylonas, who was held for 13 days until his family paid a ransom.

The 42-year-old and his elder brother Nikos, who has been in prison since 2006 after spending 16 years on the run following a 1990 prison escape, were at one stage dubbed modern-day Robin Hoods.

News reports have fueled their notoriety — saying they have offered loot to the poor and vowed never to harm members of the public during their thefts.

Sunday's escape was yet another embarrassing blow for Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

His conservative government, which holds a razor-thin majority in Parliament, has been buffeted by financial scandals, weeks of extensive riots sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenager in December and the re-emergence of domestic terrorism.

"In this country where nothing works, it appears that air transfers from Korydallos are working well," the opposition Socialist party said, adding that "elections are the only solution."

Karamanlis rejected calling early elections but convened a meeting Monday to discuss the prison break.

Justice Minister Nikos Dendias said the escape appeared to have been an inside job. "The government believes that the operation could not have succeeded without participation from within," he said after the Cabinet meeting.

He fired the ministry's top prison security official, the inspector-general of prisons and the head of the Korydallos prison on Sunday. He also called for an investigation into the bank accounts of all guards working in the wing where the two convicts were held, and suspended the ministry's head of prison policy.

Paleokostas was serving prison sentences of more that 25 years for a 1995 kidnapping, several robberies and arms possession. His previous escape operation had been masterminded by his older brother.

Nikos Paleokostas was recaptured in September 2006 and is still in jail. He has been convicted of 16 bank robberies.

Rizaj, an Albanian immigrant, was serving a life term for murder. He has also been charged with carrying out two contract killings while on the run after the June 2006 helicopter escape. He was recaptured that September.

Gitmo detainee who claimed torture is freed

2009-02-23T13:36:00.000-08:00

A Guantanamo prisoner who claims he was tortured at a covert CIA site in Morocco returned to Britain a free man Monday after nearly seven years in U.S. captivity — the first inmate from the U.S. prison camp freed since President Barack Obama took office.

Binyam Mohamed, once accused by U.S. officials of being part of a conspiracy to detonate a "dirty bomb" on American soil, flew to a British military base.

He was released after being interviewed for four hours by police and immigration officials. He had to fill out new paperwork for residency since his permit expired in 2004.

Mohamed's claims of torture, abuse and extraordinary rendition are at the heart of several lawsuits. Lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic are suing for secret documents they say prove the United States sent Mohamed to Morocco and that Britain knew of the mistreatment — a violation under the 1994 U.N. Convention Against Torture.

"I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares," Mohamed said in a statement released by his attorneys. "Before this ordeal, `torture' was an abstract word to me. ... It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways all orchestrated by the United States government."

He said he wasn't yet "physically nor mentally capable of facing the media."

His lawyers said they would provide money for his accommodations and living expenses.

Mohamed's case could have far-reaching legal implications for the Obama administration and Britain, America's closest partner during its "war on terror."

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is expected at the Guantanamo detention center Monday as the Obama administration weighs what is needed to shut the facility down.

"The friendship and assistance of the international community is vitally important as we work to close Guantanamo, and we greatly appreciate the efforts of the British government to work with us on the transfer of Binyam Mohammed," Holder said in a statement.

Britain's attorney general has opened an investigation into whether there was criminal wrongdoing on the part of Britain or a British security agent from MI5 who interrogated Mohamed in Pakistan, where he was arrested in 2002.

Two senior British judges, meanwhile, have reopened a case into whether 42 secret U.S. intelligence documents shared with Britain should be made public.

Several other lawsuits are under way in the United States against a Boeing subsidiary that allegedly supplied planes for rendition flights to Morocco and for the disclosure of Bush-era legal memos on renditions and interrogation tactics.

The United States has refused to account for the 18 months Mohamed says he was in Morocco.

"I am so glad and so happy, more than words can express," Mohamed's sister, Zuhra Mohamed, said Monday.

The 30-year-old Ethiopian refugee has few remaining links to Britain. His brother and sister live in the United States. His parents are said to be back in Ethiopia. And his British residency that he obtained when he was teenager has since expired.

Any revelations from the lawsuits could be particularly damaging for the British government, which unlike the Obama administration, doesn't have its predecessors to blame.

"I assure you that we have done everything by the law," Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters last week when faced with questions over Mohamed's case.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Britain has been asking for the return of former UK residents since 2007.

"We very much welcome President Obama's commitment to close Guantanamo Bay, and I see today's return of Binyam Mohamed as the first step toward that shared goal," Miliband said.

Mohamed's family came to London from Ethiopia in 1994. It applied for asylum following the ouster of Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam's ouster, but the family was only given temporary residency.

Schooled in West London, Mohamed worked as a janitor and later became a student of electrical engineering before converting to Islam in 2001.

Shortly afterward, he said he went to Pakistan and Afghanistan to escape a bad circle of London friends and experience an Islamic society. But he was detained in the Pakistani port city of Karachi in 2002 for using a false passport to return to Britain.

For three months, he says he was tortured by Pakistani agents, who hung him for a week by a leather strap around his wrists. He says at least one MI5 officer questioned him there.

He claims he was handed over to U.S. authorities in July 2002, and then sent to Morocco where he was tortured for 18 months. According to his account, one of his foreign interrogators slashed his penis with a scalpel.

Many of the estimated 750 detainees who have passed through Guantanamo prison camp since it opened in January 2002 have reported mental and physical abuse, but few have detailed such sustained physical and mental abuse at an alleged CIA covert site.

Mohamed claims he eventually confessed to an array of charges to stop his abuse — a confession that laid the groundwork for his transfer to another CIA site in Afghanistan, where he said he was starved and beaten before being sent to Guantanamo in 2004.

In May of 2008, Mohamed was charged with conspiring with al-Qaida members to murder and commit terrorism. He also was accused in a "dirty bomb" plot to fill U.S. apartments with natural gas and blow them up.

But then in October all charges were dropped — only months after his lawyers filed a lawsuit in Britain for the disclosure of the 42 secret documents.

Two other former British residents remain in Guantanamo: Saudi-born Shaker Aamer, 37, and Algerian Ahmed Belbacha, 39.

'Slumdog' Is Best in Show

2009-02-23T13:13:00.000-08:00

"Slumdog Millionaire," an unlikely box office hit about a Mumbai street kid's date with destiny on an American-style TV quiz show, won Best Picture and seven other Academy Awards on a night when the U.S. movie industry embraced its role in an increasingly global marketplace.

In addition to the "Slumdog" juggernaut -- which brought Oscars for its British director, Danny Boyle, and British and Indian crew members alike -- prizes went to the late Australian actor Heath Ledger and Spanish actress Penélope Cruz, who delivered the first of the night's many heavily accented acceptance speeches.

"This ceremony was a moment of unity for the world because art, in any form, is and has been and will always be our universal language," said the Best Supporting Actress winner for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" -- before switching over to speak in Spanish.

Kate Winslet, a British actress who this year played a frustrated American suburban housewife in "Revolutionary Road," won Best Actress for playing a mysterious German woman who seduces a teenager in "The Reader." California's own Sean Penn won his second Best Actor trophy for his role as slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk in "Milk."

The emotional heart of the night came with the prize to Ledger for his role as Batman's nemesis the Joker in "The Dark Knight" (2008's box office champ and the second-highest-grossing movie of all time, which also won the prize for Sound Editing). Ledger, whose role as a gay cowboy in 2005's "Brokeback Mountain" vaulted him into the top ranks of actors, died at 28 last year of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. His Oscar was accepted by his family.

The actor's sister, Kate Ledger, told reporters later about her brother's excitement about the role. "I told him, 'I have a feeling this is it for you, you're going to get a nomination for this.' He just looked at me and smiled."

It was a more muted evening for the Hollywood studios' other big contribution to the prize derby this year. Few other movies in recent history have been as carefully crafted to win hearts, minds and dollars as the "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," a big-budget studio film packed to the gills with bankable stars, heartwarming humanism, sci-fi suspense and mind-blowing special effects that convincingly transformed Brad Pitt from an 80-year-old to a teenager in reverse.

But "Button," duly recognized with a near-record 13 Oscar nominations, ended up winning only three technical prizes -- the fewest ever for a movie with so many nods.

In recent years Hollywood has increasingly embraced foreign actors -- last year's acting winners were all European -- while increasingly relying on revenue from foreign shores.

"Slumdog" boosters hailed its win as a blow for the struggling but influential independent film industry. The movie, made for $15 million, has long swaths of foreign dialogue and no American stars; last summer, producers were still struggling to find a distributor willing to put it in U.S. theaters.

"Button," on the other hand, was championed from early on by studio chiefs at Paramount. They started with a provocative F. Scott Fitzgerald story about a man who ages backward, reworked for the screen by the writer behind feel-good blockbuster "Forrest Gump." They hired an edgy critics'-darling director, David Fincher, and cast box office god Pitt opposite Oscar winner Cate Blanchett. They topped it all off with the best CGI money can buy, plus the consciousness-raising backdrop of Hurricane Katrina.

The result: a movie that millions went to see but few seem to love. And while its box office receipts certainly look impressive -- $245 million worldwide -- many in Hollywood have assessed it a flop, considering its cost: an estimated $150 million to make and nearly as much again to market, the Los Angeles Times revealed last month, citing sources close to the project.

"Slumdog" had more serious themes -- poverty, globalism -- but a lighter touch, with animated subtitles, a swoony teenage love story and a big singing, dancing Bollywood finale. Also: a significantly shorter running time -- two hours to Button's nearly three.

Across India's cities, film buffs held early morning breakfast parties and gathered around cable television to root for "Slumdog Millionaire." In the Mumbai slums, where part of the movie is set, hundreds of residents watched on a television set up in the morning sun. The movie has sparked controversy across the country for its unflinching portrayal of India's poverty, its alleged low pay of several of the slum-dwelling child stars and use of the word "dog" in the title.

But on Monday morning, many cafes and slum residents in Mumbai blasted "Jai Ho," one of the film's popular songs. India's talk shows were filled with shouts of "bravo" and had live interviews with Bollywood directors. In Mumbai, slum dwellers cheered, some set off firecrackers. Actor Saurabh Shukla, who starred as a chubby police constable in "Slumdog," said, "You can see it on my face, I am absolutely thrilled. It is an amazing feat for us all. It's wonderful for India."

Until tonight, only two other Indians had brought gold statuettes home to India -- "Gandhi" costume designer Bhanu Athaiya in 1983 and director Satyajit Ray, who picked up an honorary prize for contribution to world cinema in 1992. Thanks to "Slumdog," the number doubled, with double winner A.R. Rahman for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, and Resul Pookutty, who was part of the team that won for Sound Mixing.

Gossip Site Defends Posting Of Rihanna Photo

2009-02-23T13:10:00.001-08:00

Even as the Los Angeles Police Department conducts an internal investigation into how a picture of a battered Rihanna made its way onto the Internet last week, TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin told Fox News that he obtained the disturbing image legally.

"It is a photograph of Rihanna that was taken shortly after the alleged beating a couple of weeks ago," Levin said during an appearance on Greta Van Sustren's "On The Record" show on Friday, noting that the LAPD essentially confirmed that the photo was real by launching the investigation. "We, obviously, believed at the time, convincingly, that it was Rihanna and put it up on the site. ... I'm not saying anything bad at all about the LAPD. I mean, what they needed to do, they felt, was conduct an internal-affairs investigation because they felt there was a leak. In so doing ... they did authenticate the picture."

Levin would not reveal how TMZ obtained the photo, but he said they did not initially believe that it was an image taken by the LAPD. "And we still are still not convinced it is," he said of the shot, which drew fire from Rihanna's father and many fans, who called the leak "inappropriate."

In launching an investigation into the leak of the photo — which appears to have been taken following the alleged altercation between Rihanna and her boyfriend, Chris Brown, on February 8 — the LAPD said the image "has the appearance of one taken during an official domestic-violence investigation."

The LAPD has not named Rihanna as the alleged victim in the case, per department rules, but on Friday, following the release of the photo, Rihanna finally broke her silence.

"At the request of the authorities, Rihanna is not commenting about the incident involving Chris Brown," her representatives said in a statement. "She wants to assure her fans that she remains strong, is doing well, and deeply appreciates the outpouring of support she has received during this difficult time."

Following the bombshell posting of the post-altercation photo, TMZ also put up an image over the weekend of the singer getting out of a car in Los Angeles on Thursday, one of the first pictures of Rihanna in public since Grammy weekend.

Levin defended the posting of the Rihanna picture, saying that it presents both sides of the story on the alleged incident, which has brought the issue of domestic abuse into the spotlight.

"Chris Brown is not going to just say, 'I'm going to lie down on this one and not fight,' " Levin said of the 19-year-old singer, who issued a statement on February 15 saying he was "sorry and saddened" over the incident. "I guarantee you that Chris Brown is going to mount a defense in this case. I know that. He will mount a defense in this case. So, the picture is not the be-all and the end-all, as far as he's concerned. ... But what it does do is it puts a face on what both sides really have been kind of leaking out over the last couple of weeks. ... Well, the bottom line is, here's the photograph, here's the end result. And frankly, Greta, I think it's pretty horrifying."

Brown, who turned himself in on the night of the Grammys and was booked on suspicion of making criminal threats, has not been charged in the incident.

Go here for domestic violence resources, or check out Think MTV for a video handbook on spotting the warning signs of abuse.

Google Sinks Atlantis Discovery Buzz

2009-02-23T13:05:00.000-08:00

Last week, a British man announced he'd found the lost city of Atlantis using Google Ocean -- the latest add-on to Google Earth that features 3D bathymetry, which lets you explore the ocean floor. The supposed ‘Atlantis' image is about 620 miles off the northwestern coast of Africa and south of Portugal. It shows a rectangular grid with what looks like roadways leading away from it at the coordinates 31 15'15.53N 24 15'30.53W. According to The Telegraph, the newspaper that first reported the "discovery," the pattern is roughly the size of Wales (around 8,000 sq. mi.).

Friday's find sparked intense interest online despite the farfetched claim. Many scratched their heads wondering, what if? After all, this underwater discovery seemed to match the location Plato had described in his writings. Plato said Atlantis was a massive island that was "larger than Libya and Asia together," and located at a "distant point in the Atlantic Ocean...in front of the mouth of the pillars of Hercules" (the Straits of Gibraltar).

Google Quashes Atlantis Buzz

Alas, the Atlantis discovery was not meant to be. Google quashed the idea a day later in a statement, "what users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process," Google said. "Bathymetric (or seafloor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the seafloor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data."

Google Earth has been responsible for several amazing discoveries in the past as the company pointed out: "It's true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth -- a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species, a fringing coral reef off the coast of Australia, and the remains of an Ancient Roman villa, to name just a few." Unfortunately, Atlantis will not be added to this list.

Atlantis X-File?

Despite Google's denial, some conspiracy theorists reject the company's explanation and say the search giant might be participating in a cover-up. Now, c'mon, folks -- the boat-with-sonar explanation is just as plausible as the Atlantis theory. Not to mention the fact that Plato was describing a city that perished 9000 years before his birth, so who knows if it was ever real in the first place!

In other news, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt embarked on an impromptu fact-finding mission to Portugal and Morocco this week. Just kidding!

Wondering what else might be "out there" on Google Earth? Check out PCWorld's "Getting Your Feet Wet With Google Ocean: First Look in Images" or "Strangest Sights in Google Earth."

Venezuela's Chavez signs amendment to end limits

2009-02-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday signed a constitutional amendment that will allow him to remain in office as long as he wins elections.

The amendment to end term limits for all elected officials — approved by voters in a referendum on Sunday — will take effect once it is published in Venezuela's Official Gazette.

"I may have performed up until how," Chavez told red-clad supporters in a poor Caracas neighborhood. "But now, I will now perform 100 times more."

Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, has declared himself a pre-candidate for presidential elections in 2012 — when he was constitutionally barred from running again.

Venezuelans approved the amendment 55 percent to 45 percent.

It was Chavez's second attempt to change Venezuela's constitution to end the two six-year term limits set on the presidency. In December 2007, voters rejected a reform package that would have allowed Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely and expanded his power.

Did Google Earth find Atlantis?

2009-02-22T16:07:00.000-08:00

Google is officially denying widespread Internet rumors that its Google Earth software located the mythical sunken city of Atlantis off the coast of Africa. Either that, or Google is totally trying to hide something. Since I always appreciate a nice juicy conspiracy theory, I'm going to go with the latter.

Is this Atlantis? Apparently not, according to those meanies at Google.

(Credit: Google Earth)

From what it sounds like, a British aeronautical engineer was playing around with the new Google Earth 5.0, which includes undersea data, and noticed something funny off the coast of Africa, about 600 miles west of the Canary Islands, that resembled a pattern of a street grid. According to the United Kingdom's Press Association, the pattern of streets equated to an area the size of Wales.

In case you've had more important things to read about for the past few thousand years, Atlantis was a legendary island city first mentioned by Plato, allegedly a hard-core naval power located somewhere near North Africa that disappeared when it sank into the ocean. Guess global warming was a problem back then, too.

Anyway, most people think that Plato made it up, kind of like how those guys in Georgia made up the story about shooting Bigfoot, but others just won't stop believin'.

So this guy is trawling the ocean floor with Google Earth--ah, if only we had that kind of free time on our hands--and was quick to announce his discovery. It looks like The Telegraph reported the story first, adding that the exact coordinates are 31 15'15.53N, 24 15'30.53W.

Recently, Google's mapping products have revealed everything from a creepy dude walking around with a sniper rifle to what appear to be U.S. drones in Pakistan.

But when it comes to Atlantis, Google totally had to rain on everyone's parade. "It's true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth, including a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species and the remains of an ancient Roman villa," a statement from Google read. "In this case, however, what users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process. Bathymetric (or sea floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data."

I smell a cover-up!

In other news, that pendulum map on last week's "Lost" was totally awesome.

TMZ Responds to LAPD Internal Investigation on Battered Rihanna Photo

2009-02-22T16:04:00.000-08:00

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record ," February 20, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Tonight: She is out and about. TMZ posted the first picture of pop star Rihanna caught in public for the first time since allegedly being beaten in the face by her boyfriend, rapper Chris Brown. The just-posted picture was taken yesterday when the pop star was spotted on the way to the airport.

Now, this comes on the heels of last night's bombshell photo allegedly of Rihanna also obtained by TMZ.com. That pic is said to show Rihanna moments after being beaten by Brown. Is this an authentic picture of Rihanna? Is this her beaten face? Some doctored pictures were circulated on the Internet last week, so of course, now everyone wants to know if this picture is the real deal or not.

Moments ago, TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin went "On the Record."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: Harvey, nice to see you. And you are so lucky. Do you know why?

HARVEY LEVIN, TMZ.COM: Why?

VAN SUSTEREN: Because you have the LAPD authenticating the picture you put on TMZ.com in their press release.

LEVIN: You noticed!

(LAUGHTER)

LEVIN: You're the first person -- you know, Greta, it just proves again how smart you are. You figured something out that went over pretty much everybody else's head.

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, Harvey, I -- what were they thinking? I mean, you've got this picture -- I mean -- I guess we should explain it for the viewers. What's the picture you have on TMZ.com?

LEVIN: Yes, it is a photograph Rihanna that was taken shortly after the alleged beating a couple of weeks ago. We, obviously, believed at the time convincingly that it was Rihanna and put it up on the site.

And I'm not -- believe me, I'm not saying anything bad at all about the LAPD. I mean, what they needed to do, they felt, was conduct an internal affairs investigation because they felt there was a leak. In so doing, as you say, they did authenticate the picture.

Now, I should be quick to say, Greta, that we got this picture legally. And we -- when we got the picture, we believed it was not an LAPD picture, and we still are still not convinced it is. The police department is sounding like they say it is, but they haven't said that unequivocally, either.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, wait a second. I don't even understand. Even if it is an LAPD police picture, you're a journalist, you got the picture, and it's their problem internally if it came -- if it got leaked somehow to the public or to the press. That's not your problem. That's their problem. And with all due respect to you defending them, the LAPD, on this, it's pretty stupid to issue a press release about an internal investigation and authenticate a picture, as they've done.

LEVIN: Well, they did what they did. And you know, you're right, in so doing, they -- you know, because there were a lot of people -- you know, once we put it up, we saw some of the comments on the site. They were saying, Oh, this has got to be Photoshopped. We can't believe this. I mean, we knew it wasn't. But nonetheless, you know, it is what it is this morning.is.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. And the words from the press release from the LAPD, so we have that straight -- "The photograph has the appearance of one taken during an official domestic violence investigation." And I hope that they'll do my authenticating of my work in the future when we need help. But anyway, I say that sort of tongue in cheek. All right, Now, tell me about this...

LEVIN: I noticed!

(LAUGHTER)

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes. Right. All right, so where is Rihanna? And where is Chris Brown? And what's the story going back to this February 8 allegation of assault?

LEVIN: Well, you know, they are -- you know, she has gone out in public. We actually have a picture of her getting into a car last night. But for the most part, they have laid low.

You know, Greta, the bottom line is, is that I can tell you this much, and there are certain things I can publish. Chris Brown is not going to just say, I'm going to lay down on this one and not fight. I guarantee you that Chris Brown is going to mount a defense in this case. I know that. He will mount a defense in this case. So the picture is not the be-all and the end-all as far as he's concerned.

But what it does do is it puts a face on what both sides really have been kind of leaking out over the last couple of weeks, that there's one side, there's a second side. Well, the bottom line is, here's the photograph, here's the end result. And frankly, Greta, I think it's pretty horrifying.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, the thing, though, Harvey, is that if you mount a defense of this, his defense has got to be either self-defense, meaning, You think she looks back, you should see how I look, and Chris Brown needs to come up with his own photo of himself, of that he didn't do it, that somebody else did. I mean, those are -- I mean, you're a lawyer. I mean, what other defenses? So unless -- unless he's going to leak a picture to TMZ.com...

LEVIN: I think there's a third...

VAN SUSTEREN: ... with a lot of bruises, that's a tough defense.

LEVIN: I think there's a third option, Greta. He clearly can't show bruises that are equivalent to hers, no doubt. He won't be able to do that. But you know -- and this is not a technical legal defense, but you know the way juries work. If he can show, essentially, mutual combat, for example, not that it's defensible legally, but if they can convince a jury that she went off and he went off and he ended up getting the better of it -- I'm not trying to justify it, but you know where I'm going here, that if he can get a jury that -- where that will resonate, you know, he might think he has a fighting chance. I'm not saying he does, I'm saying he might think that.

VAN SUSTEREN: Good choice of words, "fighting chance." All right.

LEVIN: Intentional, by the way.

VAN SUSTEREN: Intentional indeed. All right, where is Chris Brown, by the way? And what -- has he made any public statements?

LEVIN: No. I mean, he's made a statement saying he's sorry and he's consulting his pastor, but nothing of substance. And he frankly would be crazy to start going out there and defending this. It's just not going to look good if he does, and especially, you know, given what we're seeing here, Greta. I mean, I'm not sure what your reaction to it was, but my reaction was just -- I mean, honestly, to me, you know, this really does make you sit there and understand domestic violence, that it's not just theoretically listening to two people arguing. I mean, you really, really see it. And...

VAN SUSTEREN: Except for...

LEVIN: ... It's a different than most of the cases -- just one other quick thing. It's different than most of these cases where there are faceless people and we don't know their names. We've all been reporting that it's Rihanna for the last two weeks, so there's no privacy in that sense in this case because everybody's been saying Rihanna's the alleged victim. This merely puts that face on it. And my reaction to this photo was pretty strong.

VAN SUSTEREN: Is -- have they had a long-term relationship, Rihanna and Chris Brown?

LEVIN: Yes, I mean, they've -- I mean, they're kids still. I mean, she just turned 21 today. So you know, they've had a relationship. I mean, it's a real relationship. And you know, what -- we've heard various things, you know, since this all happened. We've heard she wants nothing to do with him. We heard she's going to sue him. We heard she's going to press charges. We've heard she's not. We've heard she's texting him. There are a lot of rumors going around, and I don't really put a lot of credence in any of them, which is why we haven't put any of that stuff up on the site because I don't think it's concrete enough. But I think the fact is, with those pictures, Greta, I got to tell you, I mean, I don't think the DA is going to be stymied if she doesn't cooperate.

VAN SUSTEREN: And when you refer to "site," you mean TMZ.com, where we all saw the pictures and we're following the story. Harvey, thank you very much.

LEVIN: Sure, Greta. See you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: For more on this, who better to talk to than lawyer Gloria Allred. She joins us live. Gloria, let's talk about these pictures. First of all, what's the impact of a domestic violence victim, if that's, indeed, what this is, you know, having the picture put on the Internet or it's leaked out of the police department?

GLORIA ALLRED, VICTIMS' RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, I think that many people are going to find that they feel instant sympathy, Greta, for Rihanna, who is obviously injured in this and who, I think, just appears very hurt and very somber by all of this. Of course, Chris Brown will try to put it in context, and my guess is that he is making known what his defense through his lawyers to the district attorney in hopes that no charges will be filed. And of course, no charges have yet been filed in this case. He's hoping to prevent that by probably saying in advance to them what his defense is going to be.

VAN SUSTEREN: What is the defense?

ALLRED: Well, we don't know because they haven't made that public. He said he was sorry, but exactly sorry about what? That's not clear. And I think that his "sorry" expression really was so vague that it didn't give the facts about what occurred. So we'll have to wait and see, if there's a trial, to find out what his defense would be. And I don't think the DA's going to file unless he thinks he can prove guilt without a reasonable doubt in this high-profile case.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, OK, let's take a couple of these. One thing is certain is that saying you're sorry is not a defense to beating someone, assuming that you did the beating, or to armed robbery or to petty larceny or anything. Saying you're sorry just simply is no a defense.

I think that the -- I think the best thing he has going for him is the fact that TMZ caught up with her at the airport, is that -- the truth is, in a lot of these cases, that the complainant, assuming that this is a legitimate claim, gets cold feet -- you know, madly in love with the person that beat her or doesn't want to get involved or doesn't want to hurt careers or is just an uncooperative witness for the prosecution. That's usually why these things don't go forward, if you got a picture and it is the person and the person's been beaten obviously.

ALLRED: Exactly. And we'll have to see...

VAN SUSTEREN: Agree?

ALLRED: Yes, I think that's part of it, but again, I think we have to see the context. And just because there's a picture doesn't mean that there's going to be a conviction, either. Case in point, O.J. Simpson. Remember the face of Nicole Brown Simpson and the injuries that she had? He entered a plea, actually, to no contest to spousal battery, but...

VAN SUSTEREN: But she wouldn't cooperate.

ALLRED: ... even though there was so much evidence...

VAN SUSTEREN: But the problem is -- what the problem with the prosecution had in the O.J. Simpson case was that Nicole Brown Simpson on the domestic violence simply wasn't cooperative, is that, you know -- you know, sometimes or often you know, women or men, who's ever the victim of the domestic violence, changes his or her mind and doesn't want to prosecute. And so the prosecution tries to cut a deal with -- you know, try to get, you know, something out of it, and that's why they got the plea out of O.J. on a minor offense for the beating.

Here, if Rihanna doesn't want to prosecute, the prosecutor is not likely to go forward, agree?

ALLRED: Well, I think that this district attorney -- and I do know this district attorney, Steve Cooley (ph), he feels very strongly about domestic violence, if he can prove it. And again, we don't know that that occurred in this case. And I think that they would be very supportive of the victim and work with the victim and help her to understand why it would be important for her to go forward. It is not her decision as to whether to, as you say, press charges.

VAN SUSTEREN: As a technical matter.

ALLRED: It's the decision of the district attorney. It's a decision of the district attorney. It's his decision, not hers.

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes, as a technical matter. But if she doesn't cooperate, it changes the nature of the case. But if she says, I've been beaten, I've been beaten by this person and here's the picture, that -- that certainly is a reason to go -- for a prosecutor to go forward very aggressively.

All right, Gloria, stand by. We have much more with you later.

ALLRED: OK.

Crac Veltroni: un fallimento su tutti fronti

2009-02-19T08:03:00.000-08:00

Per Veltroni non arriva mai il tempo delle vacche grasse. In Sardegna ha perso Renato Soru e ha perso il partito. Da ieri, oltre a Bersani, non c’è un candidato in più alla segreteria del Pd, ma l’insuccesso è bruciante anche se Soru se l’è cercato lasciando il Pd e Veltroni nei guai. L’ambizioso ex-governatore sardo ha prima spaccato il partito, poi, ambendo alla segreteria nazionale, l’ha trascinato in una nuova imprevista sconfitta.
È stato un inizio di settimana terribile per Veltroni. Oltre all’affollarsi di candidati alla sua poltrona, tiene banco la mutata morfologia dello scontro interno che viene rivelato dalle notizie della periferia.
Le primarie di Firenze e di Prato, che hanno designato i candidati sindaci del Pd per le prossime amministrative, hanno portato a risultati sorprendenti. A Firenze ha vinto Matteo Renzi, rutelliano doc, che ha battuto con largo margine sia il veltroniano Lapo Pistelli sia il dalemiano Michele Ventura. Mentre a Prato l’ex dc Massimo Carlesi, seguace di Rosy Bindi, ha battuto il candidato dell’apparato. I tre risultati dicono qualcosa di inquietante per il vertice del Pd. È fallito in Sardegna il matrimonio con la cosiddetta società civile e in Toscana sono stati premiati i due candidati non diessini e non appoggiati dalla nomenklatura. Si potrebbe dire che le minoranze romane sono diventate d’improvviso maggioranze periferiche. Segno che l’insoddisfazione dei militanti comincia a colpire il quartiere generale, tutto quanto.
La situazione interna al Pd ha preso ad attraversare, quindi, una nuova tempesta. Lo scontro fra le correnti si è fatto talmente acceso ed estenuante che un fedelissimo del segretario, il senatore Giorgio Tonini, ieri ha ripetuto l’invito a indire immediatamente il congresso. Del resto che di vera e propria vigilia congressuale si tratti, è stato chiaro dopo la decisione di Pierluigi Bersani di ufficializzare anzitempo la propria candidatura alla segreteria del Pd. Massimo D’Alema, all’indomani dello sciopero Cgil dove sia lui sia Bersani avevano vistosamente portato la solidarietà degli ex diessini, ha sostenuto che solo grazie a Bersani si potrà realizzare il riavvicinamento fra settori di militanti che si sono allontanati e il partito guidato temporaneamente da Veltroni.
In verità anche per D’Alema queste primarie toscane portano una cattiva notizia con il fallimento della candidatura di un suo uomo, l’ex vice-sindaco e deputato Michele Ventura. C’è un’altra defezione dal campo veltronian-dalemiano che sta facendo rumore. Il senatore Ignazio Marino, già presidente nella scorsa legislatura della commissione sanità, ha deciso di anticipare i tempi e di proporre un referendum abrogativo per la futura legge sul testamento biologico. Una decisione che certamente non è in sintonia con il tentativo di Veltroni di mediare con l’anima ex popolare, ma anche una cattiva notizia per il vecchio sponsor di Marino, Massimo D’Alema, che si era tenuto fuori dalle dispute sul caso Englaro.
È un panorama terremotato quello che si presenta di fronte all’osservatore delle vicende del Pd, dopo il voto sardo e le primarie toscane. Sullo sfondo un doppio rischio. Il primo è quello di una scissione che molti credono sia nei progetti di Francesco Rutelli. L’ex sindaco di Roma nega, ma la sua contrarietà alle scelte del vertice del partito ha ormai superato la soglia di guardia e persino alcuni suoi più stretti collaboratori, come Paolo Gentiloni, ignorano quali siano i suoi veri progetti. Il secondo rischio, quello più concreto, è lo sfinimento, ben prima della battaglia elettorale per le Europee e per le amministrative, dell’intero partito. Qui si possono collocare l’iniziativa e le ambizioni di D’Alema, che non ha alcuna voglia di spaccare la sua creatura ma chiaramente considera insopportabile l’attuale gruppo dirigente. Veltroni si trova nella classica condizione dell’uomo solo al comando. Potrà soccombere o trasformare questa solitudine in una occasione per dividere i suoi avversari e tentare la rivincita. Probabilmente a questo pensa. Sicuramente a questo pensano i suoi più stretti collaboratori quando gli consigliano la battaglia aperta. Le primarie di Firenze e di Prato, e la scomparsa dalla scena politica di Soru, dicono che la forza mobilitante dei vecchi ds e della società civile è largamente usurata e con una accorta strategia di alleanze con i nuovi potentati locali Veltroni può giocare con qualche chance la partita finale contro D’Alema.

Parisi: "Veltroni non all'altezza"

2009-02-19T05:16:00.000-08:00

"Veltroni doveva dire all'inizio se era adatto o meno per il lavoro che si accingeva a fare: il sospetto che non lo fosse lo avevamo in molti". Lo afferma Arturo Parisi riferendosi alle dimissioni dell'ex segretario del Pd. Inoltre Parisi esclude un ritorno di Prodi e "visto che non si può tornare indietro è comprensibile che qualcuno pensi di andare verso altre case. Ma farlo sarebbe un'operazione miope e perdente".

L'indomani le dimissioni del numero uno del Pd, Arturo Parisi sottolinea anche di sospendere il giudizio sull'unico sceso in campo, Pierluigi Bersani. "Finora - spiega Parisi - ho sentito solo delle generiche considerazioni sul profilo di un partito piu' tradizionale". Mentre "il ritorno all'Ulivo è per noi il ritorno al futuro". Quanto a possibili personalità in grado di guidare il partito, "al momento non ne vedo - aggiunge - ma persone che oggi vedo appiattite sulle proposte esistenti potrebbero anche riformularle in modo rinnovato".

"La prima regola del partito democratico è l'articolo 1 che è scritto nel nome partito democratico: qui si vede tutto, tranne che la democrazia", dice Arturo Parisi che spiega come, a suo parere, la strada da percorrere sia quella delle primarie subito. "Ieri notte - aggiunge - ho visto le agenzie prima di andare a letto che annunciavano per voce del portavoce che tutto era stato deciso. Ancora una volta l'assemblea convocata per sabato era chiamata a ratificare, immagino con un applauso, una decisione che era stata già presa in qualche luogo perduto.

Non è esattamente il tipo di partito che abbiamo voluto, non è il tipo di partito di cui abbiamo bisogno". Secondo Parisi ''adesso dobbiamo ricominciare dalla politica e dalla democrazia che poco si è vista in questi venti mesi, a parte la grande festa alla democrazia che sono state le primarie". E ribadisce come l'avvisaglia della disfatta del Pd si era vista in occasione delle elezioni comunali di Roma, ''quando la mattina si parlava di un Pd autosufficiente e la sera si puntava al Campidoglio con una coalizione grandissima".

Parisi, infine, ribadisce ancora una volta di escludere un ritorno di Romano Prodi. ''Lui si muove meglio - sostiene - sul piano internazionale e di governo''. Le dimissioni del segretario del Pd, Walter Veltroni sono state "tardive e intempestive" tuttavia" non credo che il partito si avvantaggi di un cambio di guida a tre mesi dalle elezioni".

Stando a quanto pubblicato sui principali quotidiani romeni, i fratelli Lucian, Ciprian Trinca e Marcel Cristian Codita erano già noti come delinquent

2009-02-18T02:07:00.000-08:00

Emergono nuove informazioni sull’identità dei sei arrestati - Stando a quanto pubblicato sui principali quotidiani romeni, i fratelli Lucian, Ciprian Trinca e Marcel Cristian Codita erano già noti come delinquenti anche nella propria patria. "A differenza del caso Mailat, avvenuto prima delle elezioni politiche in Italia", questa volta le autorità locali non si sono più trasformate in accusatori, anzi si sforzano di calmare la situazione", scrive il quotidiano Evenimentul zilei.

I precedenti penali - Citando fonti della polizia romena, il giornale scrive che nel 2004, a Pasqua, i fratelli Trinca sono entrati ubriachi in Chiesa, insultando i fedeli e facendo i propri bisogni al cimitero. Lucian Trinca era indagato dalla polizia anche per furto di cavalli. "La strategia di attacco del branco ha inorridito gli italiani", osserva ancora il giornale, citando la testimonianza di uno degli accusati che afferma: "abbiamo scelto quella ragazza soltanto perché il portabagagli dell'auto era più ampio e così abbiamo potuto chiuderci dentro il fidanzato".

La stampa romena fa i nomi dei sei arrestati

2009-02-18T02:04:00.001-08:00

BUCAREST (29 gennaio) - Stando al quotidiano Adevarul, i quattro sospettati di avere stuprato la ragazza di 21 anni di Guidonia sono Lucian Trinca (22 anni) e il fratello Ciprian Trinca (23), Marcel Cristinel Codita (21) e Mirel Huma (21). I primi tre sarebbero di Iasi (Romania orientale),il quarto di Tecuci (est). I quattro sono accusati di violenza sessuale aggravata e rapina. Gli altri due romeni arrestati, Ionut Anton Barbu (30) e Mugurel Goia (22), entrambi di Bucarest, sono accusati di favoreggiamento.

I NOMI DEI QUATTRO STUPRATORI ROMENI DI GUIDONIA

2009-02-18T01:59:00.000-08:00

Mirel Huma, Marcel Cristinel Coada, Ciprian Trinca, Lucian Trinca: sono questi i nomi dei quattro componenti del branco di Guidonia che la notte tra giovedì 22 e venerdì 23 gennaio ha violentato una ragazza, chiudendo nel bagagliaio dell'auto il suo fidanzato.

Terribile il racconto di quella notte fatto da Mirel Huma, uno dei quattro compenenti del branco. Queste le sue parole: "Avevamo bevuto, avevamo deciso che ci saremmo divertiti. Uno di noi l'ha violentata due volte, quella ragazza. Ci avevamo già provato, quella sera". Questi i passaggi più drammatici del racconto di Huma.

Quella sera dunque la roulette russa dell'orrore ha distrutto solo per caso la vita di due ragazzi di Guidonia. Sarebbe bastato un bagagliaio più grande e sarebbe toccata ad un'altra coppietta. “Poche ore prima” racconta Huma nell'interrogatorio, “avevamo rapinato altri due giovani che si erano appartati lì vicino. Avevamo deciso di violentare la ragazza, ma siamo stati costretti a lasciar perdere perché la loro auto, una Ford Ka, era troppa piccola: non saremmo riusciti a chiudere il suo ragazzo nel bagagliaio. Così quando abbiamo visto la Fiesta l'abbiamo fatto: abbiamo bloccato il ragazzo e lo abbiamo chiuso dietro. Poi, a turno, abbiamo violentato la donna dentro l'auto”.

Dall'interrogatorio è emerso anche che i quattro hanno portato via il cellulare ai due ragazzi aggrediti per evitare che questi denunciassero immediatamente quanto accaduto. Dopo poche ore però la zona era già perlustrata palmo a palmo dai carabinieri e per i quattro romeni è stato necessario nascondersi, per progettare la fuga. A coprirli altri due connazionali Anton Ionut e Mugurel Goia entrambi arrestati per favoreggiamento.

Guidonia, conferma dei domiciliari per due romeni

2009-02-18T01:56:00.001-08:00

Il Tribunale del riesame di Roma, presieduto da Giuseppe D'Arma, ha confermato gli arresti domiciliari per i due romeni accusati di aver favorito la latitanza di quattro loro connazionali accusati dello stupro avvenuto a Guidonia, vicino a Roma, il 22 gennaio scorso. Mugurel Goia, Ionut Barbu, sono agli arresti domiciliari in località del Veneto, dopo la decisione del gip del tribunale di Tivoli, Cecilia Angrisani, che il 31 gennaio scorso li scarcerò anche in virtù del fatto che i due romeni erano incensurati e avevano a disposizione degli alloggi dove poter applicare le ordinanze di custodia cautelare emesse in serie di convalida il 29 gennaio scorso. La decisione del gip suscitò notevoli proteste. I due romeni, assistiti dall'avvocato Dello Monaco, che aveva ricorso al tribunale del Riesame chiedendo la revoca della misura cautelare, hanno sempre sostenuto che non erano a conoscenza che i loro quattro connazionali si erano resi responsabili dello stupro della ragazza, dopo aver chiuso del bagagliaio dell'auto, il fidanzato. Il difensore ha spiegato che a tutt'oggi non vi è alcuna prova, a suo giudizio, che i suoi assistiti erano a conoscenza del crimine commesso dagli altri quattro romeni. Il Riesame ha accolto l'istanza della difesa disponendo il dissequestro dei telefonini dei due e dell'auto a bordo della quale i romeni furono fermati dai carabinieri mentre tentarono di scappare verso il nord d'Italia.

Stupro a Roma, presi i due aggressori. Uno ha già confessato

2009-02-18T01:55:00.001-08:00

Li hanno fermati nella notte di martedì. Uno, il più giovane, ha confessato praticamente subito. L'altro aveva già lasciato la Capitale, la polizia lo ha trovato a Livorno. Sono i due cittadini rumeni su da giorni si erano concentrate le indagini delle forze dell'ordine. Sono loro ad aver violentato una ragazza di 14 anni sabato pomeriggio nel parco della Caffarella a Roma

Ad esserne certa è proprio lei, la vittima di questa brutale violenza: ha riconosciuto il volto di Alessandro Isztoika Loyos, il primo dei due fermati, il primo a confessare: «Non so perché – ha detto – non so come è successo, volevamo solo rapinarli, poi improvvisamente tutto è cambiato». È stato lui poi a dare indicazioni alla polizia per rintracciare il suo complice, che ha 36 anni.

Secondo quanto riferito dalla squadra mobile di Roma, su Isztoika Loyos graverebbe anche un altro sospetto: quello di essere l'autore di un altro degli stupri che hanno sconvolto la Capitale, quello di Primavalle, il quartiere di Roma Nord dove venne violentata una donna di quarant'anni.

Soru, il miliardario vestito da povero che si è fatto (del male) da solo

2009-02-18T01:51:00.000-08:00

Doveva essere il sinistro che come Berlusconi «si è fatto da solo». Del male. Doveva essere quello che avrebbe scalato il Pd: e invece non solo è rimasto al piano terra, ma adesso sta facendo venir giù tutto il condominio. «Noi non cederemo la Sardegna gratis», diceva alla vigilia del voto: chi l’avrebbe detto che il prezzo da pagare era la poltrona di Veltroni.
Comunque, quando si dice la lungimiranza: la capacità di far di conto del feudatario sardo sta tutta nel precisissimo calcolo di qualche giorno fa. Stretto nella giacca di velluto come i poveri pastori del Gennargentu, il plurimiliardario stella nascente e già cadente della sinistra giurava sul Filu ferru: «Sono avanti a Cappellacci di ben otto punti». Come no. Evidentemente si trattava dei punti del Mulino Bianco, vista la disfatta. Fulminante come il titolo del Riformista: «Salutami a Soru». E con lui non crolla solo un governatore. Non crollano solo le azioni Tiscali, peraltro già pesantemente al ribasso con in groppa 250 licenziamenti. No. Con questa Waterloo a sorpresa colui che passa per «antipatico genio» subisce la sorte peggiore che può capitare agli antipatici geni: risultare antipatici e basta. E questo stando alle opinioni di chi lo conosce bene: «Un pescecane travestito da spigola», lo disegna con paragone marittimo Giovanni Valentini, che con lui ha lavorato a stretto contatto. E Giampaolo Pansa tira giù il carico: «È una vera, strepitosa carogna, cattivo, scostante, autoritario, diffidente, con quell’accento da Brigata Sassari che fa tremare tutti». Così lo vedono a sinistra; figurati a destra. La luminosa carriera di Mister Tiscali nella galassia dei progressisti italiani finisce in un pugno di malloreddus alla sassarese. «Se batto Berlusconi faccio come Prodi, vinco alle politiche». Risultato? Sta facendo come Prodi ma senza battere Berlusconi. Passerà alla storia come l’imprenditore dalle lunghe vedute, ma balisticamente sfocate: voleva impallinare il Cavaliere, e infilzò Veltroni. E se stesso.
Così finisce la parabola del ragazzo di Sanluri, figlio di un proprietario di supermarket, che provò a laurearsi alla Bocconi e non ci riuscì. Tentò il colpo nel settore alimentare, poi immobiliare, ma senza risultati. Conosce il finanziere cagliaritano Nicola Grauso, scopre la new economy, e poi la politica, la regione, bramando Palazzo Chigi. A chi gli proponeva l’eredità di Veltroni, rispondeva: «Non so, vedremo». Il magnate del telefono aveva tutti i requisiti per il grande salto: amicizie trasversali, il gradimento di Confindustria, e una certa capacità di sintesi tra i capibastone del Pd. E poi quell’arroganza alla Mourinho che finché vinci fa tanto figo, ma quando retrocedi è un disastro. Con il nemico, poi, condivideva la passione imprenditoriale (anche se Soru non si è mai laureato). Una passione mai trasferita al governo della regione, visto che la Sardegna è oggi la terra più indebitata d’Italia, 190mila disoccupati, con un Pil lumaca che cresce più lentamente di quello nazionale. Finirà negli annali per la tassa sul lusso, quell’imposta sugli yacht che fece surriscaldare il pareo di Flavio Briatore. Finirà nei sussidiari per aver paralizzato l’edilizia regionale col suo piano paesaggistico che vietava la costruzione di qualsiasi casa fino a tre chilometri dalla costa. E quando gli alleati in consiglio regionale si sono rifiutati di approvargli il piano, si è dimesso, certo della rielezione. Del resto, che il buon «Surei», come lo chiamano sull’isola, non ami le critiche, lo si è visto. Lo si è notato dalle pennellate agiografiche con cui viene dipinto dal quotidiano che si è comprato: «Sorrisi pochissimi, parole elargite con grande parsimonia, con pause, lunghe, eleganza sobria», questa è la prosa da Vanity Fair con cui l’Unità coccola il suo editore. E ancora: «Parla accorato, suda, rifiuta l’acqua, ma non il fazzoletto... il velluto prugna della giacca è perfino troppo per questa stanza stipata e calda». Ci manca solo che guarisca lo storpio e resusciti Lazzaro, e amen. Gavino Sanna, il pubblicitario che lo ha abbandonato per via del suo fare «scontroso», non ha pietà: «Soru adesso non porta la cravatta, un padrone vestito da servo è una vigliaccata verso la povera gente». Certo, la santificazione su carta dell’Unità ha fatto sobbalzare il già citato Valentini: «Gramsci si starà rotolando nella tomba. È come se Scalfari sapesse che la sua Repubblica l'avesse comprata Ricucci». Ma si tratta d’un’operazione d’immagine funzionale ai suoi scopi: che non sono quelli di starsene in riva al Mediterraneo ad aggiustare le cose, bensì di sbarcare sul continente a cercar gloria. Sogni infranti. Proprio perché ambiva alla poltrona veltroniana, ha sempre individuato in Berlusconi, e non in Cappellacci, il suo avversario sul territorio: contribuendo così a scavarsi la fossa. Com’è stato scritto, il più lesto a capire che aria tirava è stato Carlo De Benedetti. Il quale, socio di Soru, a tre settimane dal voto ha ritirato la sua partecipazione in Tiscali dal 6 al 2%. Forse il principe sardo, sotto sotto, era in odore di disarcionamento, chissà. Diceva l’altro ieri sul palco: «Una sconfitta non è per sempre». Si era dimenticato di aggiungere la postilla: la vittoria, al momento, non è in agenda.

Il Pd precipita nel dopo Veltroni, Parisi: "Non vedo leader adeguati"

2009-02-18T01:50:00.001-08:00

Le dimissioni di Walter Veltroni sono "tardive e intempestive". Neppure con l'addio dopo la sconfitta nelle Regionali sarde Veltroni strappa ad Arturo Parisi un giudizio positivo: in un'intervista alla Stampa Parisi di dice convinto che il Pd "non si avvantaggi di un cambio di guida a tre mesi dalle elezioni", anche perché al momento non vede nel partito un leader adeguato.

Certo, dice, "persone che oggi vedo appiattite sulle proposte esistenti potrebbero anche riformularle in modo rinnovato". Ma sospende il giudizio sull'unico sceso in campo, Pierluigi Bersani: "Finora ho sentito solo delle generiche considerazioni sul profilo di un partito più tradizionale". Per Parisi "il ritorno al futuro per il Pd è il ritorno
all'Ulivo". E il percorso non puo' che passare per "la convocazione del parlamento del Pd, cioè l'assemblea costituente eletta dalle primarie, la stessa che Veltroni di
fatto ha subito sciolto preferendo rimettersi ai caminetti e agli organi nominati dalle correnti, salvo poi lamentarsi della loro esistenza".

Il rinnovamento, in ogni caso, non passa necessariamente attraverso l'azzeramento di tutta la dirigenza: "La responsabilità di ciò che è successo - chiarisce - è di
tutto il gruppo dirigente. Che poi il gruppo possa essere definito dall'età è un'altra cosa. Ci sono persone giovani che appartengono a generazioni politiche passate e viceversa".

Le dimissioni di Walter Veltroni chiudono "15 anni di politica del centrosinistra". E visto il momento "drammatico", non si "puo' perdere tempo", dice invece a Repubblica Enrico Letta. E chiede che "l'assemblea costituente convochi subito il congresso, anche prima delle Europee". Se non fosse possibile prima, "convochiamolo il giorno
successivo alle elezioni". Intanto l'assemblea costituente "deve dare mandato ad una persona di gestire il partito fino al Congresso". Per Letta va bene l'ipotesi di Dario Franceschini, "basta che sia una scelta condivisa da tutti". Per il ministro ombra del Welfare ora la priorita' e' pensare "ai 5000 candidati sindaci e alle decine di migliaia di
amministratori e militanti che i stanno preparando alle elezioni amministrative", evitando che si diffonda "una atmosfera da 8 settembre. C'e' bisogno di responsabilità da parte di tutti". Per ripartire, spiega, "servono nuovi programmi e nuove alleanze per dimostrare al Paese che abbiamo l'ambizione di tornare a governare". E dice "si' all'alleanza con l'Udc per competere nella conquista dell'elettorato moderato".
"Dobbiamo evitare - spiega - la deriva spagnola con a sinistra gli anticlericali e a destra i clericali", ma "lavorare per vivere le questioni più difficili e delicate
senza spirito di crociata".

EDUCATION FOR HOPE

2009-02-18T00:56:00.000-08:00

The goal of Education for Hope is to send children to school in Ethiopia and provide them with medical care if they need it. We hope that they will be the ones who will, in the near future, make a positive change to the economic and social conditions of the country.

L'energia solare accende una speranza in Tanzania

2009-02-18T00:49:00.000-08:00

La Tanzania è uno dei paesi più poveri al mondo: il 60% della popolazione vive con meno di due dollari al giorno, elettricità e acqua potabile raggiungono solo il 40% e il 60% delle persone rispettivamente. E' il paese in cui è stato girato "L'incubo di Darwin", uno scioccante documentario del 2004 che testimonia uno degli "effetti collaterali" della globalizzazione, ovvero un paese che sfama due milioni di occidentali grazie al pesce persico del Nilo presente nel Lago Vittoria mentre la sua popolazione muore letteralmente di fame ed Aids. Una piccola luce di speranza si è però accesa, alimentata dall'energia solare. Nel 2007 Mohamedrafik Parpia, un imprenditore locale, ha ricevuto 45.000 dollari dall'organizzazione non governativa inglese Ashden Awards per ampliare la propria attività di produttore e distributore di pannelli solari e trovare il modo di portare l'elettricità anche ai più poveri. In appena tre anni la piccola impresa di Parpia, Zara Solar, ha installato circa 4000 impianti fornendo elettricità ad un numero molto maggiore di persone. In Tanzania, così come nel resto dell'Africa, la rete elettrica è piuttosto carente e la principale fonte di energia elettrica, soprattutto nelle zone rurali, è il kerosene. Il costo di questo combustibile è molto alto e le famiglie arrivano a spendere fino al 35% del loro limitatissimo reddito mensile per produrre energia. Fornire pannelli solari significa garantire una fornitura continua, abbondante e soprattutto gratuita di elettricità, che permette, ad esempio, di ricaricare la batteria del cellulare senza dover affrontare un vero e proprio viaggio per raggiungere la città più vicina e dover pagare qualcuno per attaccarsi alla sua presa di corrente. La disponibilità di energia elettrica e, dunque, di tutti gli apparecchi che funzionano grazie ad essa, crea automaticamente opportunità economiche, cultura, informazione, miglioramenti dello stile di vita e della salute, in una parola: sviluppo. Il kerosene che si usa per le lampade, i generatori e le cucine, produce fumi tossici che peggiorano la salute delle persone e causa incendi. Secondo l'Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità in molti paesi in via di sviluppo l'inquinamento dell'aria domestica è una minaccia maggiore alla salute rispetto alla tubercolosi o alla malaria. In Tanzania, dopo una vita passata in mezzo al fumo del kerosene, molte donne soffrono di forti dolori al petto, tosse cronica ed occhi rossi e proprio a causa degli occhi rossi non è infrequente che vengano brutalmente assassinate perché credute delle streghe. Quando non sono la povertà e la mancanza di opportunità, sono l'ignoranza e le superstizioni religiose a peggiorare le cose. L'energia solare rappresenta un speranza. Chi si può permettere il costo iniziale per l'impianto in poco tempo diventa un punto di riferimento per tutto il villaggio ed in due o tre anni si ripaga l'investimento fatto. Nonostante i vantaggi economici, sociali e ambientali dell'impianto solare, rimane piuttosto difficile per un abitante della zona di Mwanza, dove lavora Parpia con la sua Zara Solar, trovare i 150 dollari per comprare il kit solare più piccolo. Le banche concedono prestiti ad interessi molto alti e a condizione che ci siano garanzie reali, una rarità per la popolazione locale. Per le persone povere l'unica possibilità per accedere a piccole somme di denaro sono le organizzazioni di micro-credito come le Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies, (SACCOs), costituite da insegnanti, infermieri ed impiegati pubblici, che sono ormai riconosciute come le vere istituzioni finanziarie in grado di dare impulso allo sviluppo di un paese povero. Parpia ha dato vita al progetto pilota per la diffusione degli impianti ad energia solare nel nord della Tanzania ed ora tenta di convincere le SACCOs a finanziare gli impianti agli abitanti di altre zone che si affacciano sul Lago Vittoria, dove l'attività più diffusa è la pesca del pesce persico.

EOLIE: PIU' DI MILLE FIRME PER CHIEDERE ANNESSIONE A PROVINCIA BOLZANO

2009-02-18T00:47:00.000-08:00

Superate le mille firme, di cui piu' di 200 firme in un solo giorno, nella petizione provocatoria che chiede l'''annessione'' delle isole Eolie alla provincia di Bolzano.

''Il Governo regionale e quello nazionale ci hanno delusi - affermano alcuni firmatari della petizione lanciata dal consigliere comunale di Lipari, Alfonso Sabatini - ci rivolgiamo piu' a Nord. Era nata come una provocazione ma sta diventando quasi credibile''.

Pronte anche altre forme di protesta. Venerdi' alcuni abitanti delle Eolie saranno in protesta nuovamente davanti a palazzo Chigi, il giorno successivo, il 14 febbraio, s'incateneranno a 900 metri d'altezza sullo Stromboli per quella che e' stata definita la ''protesta di San Valentino''.

Torino, rapinano banca mascherati da Berlusconi e Dell'Utri

2009-02-18T00:43:00.000-08:00

Torino - Il Carnevale è arrivato in anticipo nella filiale Unicredit di via Pollenzo a Torino. Gli impiegati della filiale, ieri pomeriggio, si sono sentiti dire "Questa è una rapina" nientemeno che dai volti di Berlusconi e Dell'Utri, con tanto di pistola in pugno. A indossare le maschere dei due noti politici sono stati due fratelli catanesi, Matteo e Michele Manganaro di 46 e 45 anni, che hanno cercato di portarsi via un bottino di 70 mila euro. Ma ai due è andata male. Sono stati arrestati nonappena usciti dalla banca dai Carabinieri del Comando provinciale di Torino, coordinati dal colonnello Antonio De Vita. E' riuscito invece a scappare il complice che era con loro. A dare l'allarme al 112 della tentata rapina è stata una dipendente della filiale Unicredit che si era nascosta in bagno. Immediatamente sul posto è arrivata una prima pattuglia di Carabinieri che ha bloccato uno dei due fratelli, Matteo. E' nata una colluttazione fra un militare e il rapinatore, che all'improvviso ha estratto una pistola e l'ha puntata contro la testa del carabiniere dicendo "Se non mi lasci ti sparo". Il carabiniere è comunque riuscito a disarmare l'uomo, mentre il fratello Michele dopo un tentativo di fuga veniva ammanettato da un collega. I carabinieri hanno recuperato la refurtiva, due pistole che in realtà erano delle fedeli riproduzioni e uno scanner che i banditi avevano sintonizzato sulle frequenze delle forze dell'ordine. L'intera scena dei due arresti è stata vista e immortalata da un abitante della zona, che nonappena si è conclusa l'azione, ha fatto i complimenti ai Carabinieri consegnando loro un cd con le immagini degli arresti.

MENTANA: VELTRONI, PREMIER NON TOLLERA SUA INDIPENDENZA

2009-02-11T12:09:00.001-08:00

La vicenda che riguarda Enrico Mentana e le sue dimissioni dopo la mancata andata in onda della trasmissione Matrix la sera della morte di Eluana Englaro "conferma le nostre preoccupazioni per il clima che si vive nel Paese, in base al quale e' considerato un ostacolo tutto cio' che non e' organico al pensiero unico che vuole il presidente del Consiglio. Questo e' intollerabile". Lo afferma il segretario del Pd, Walter Veltroni, che definisce Mentana "un giornalista veramente terzo, di primissimo livello e autenticamente indipendente". Quella sera, ricorda il leader Pd, anziche' Matrix, come chiedeva Mentana, e' andata "in onda una trasmissione dall'audience elevato ma che strideva con il sentimento prevalente dell'opinione pubblica". Oggi "leggo sui giornali che e' stato sospeso dalla conduzione di Matrix e che potrebbe essere licenziato perche' ha detto una cosa giusta.
Sarebbe una sanzione e una ripicca verso di lui. Il Paese sente l'oppressione per il pensiero unico che si vuole imporre. In questo senso la vicenda di Mentana e' esemplare", conclude Veltroni.

MATRIX: INDISCREZIONI, "BELPIETRO AL POSTO DI MENTANA"

2009-02-11T12:07:00.001-08:00

Maurizio Belpietro alla conduzione di 'Matrix', il programma fino a due giorni affidato ad Enrico Mentana. Prima puntata con la nuova direzione gia' tra due giorni, venerdi' 13. E' l'indiscrezione sull'attuale direttore del settimanale Panorama che circola da ore negli ambienti giornalistici e che pero' non trova alcuna conferma, a cominciare in casa Mediaset. A insistere sull'indiscrezione relativa a 'Matrix' e' in particolare www. diacoblog.com, il sito diretto dal giornalista Pierluigi Diaco, che indica esplicitamente la data di avvio della nuova direzione.
Altre voci apprese dall'Agi accreditano invece Belpietro come possibile nuovo direttore del Tg5, nell'ambito di un 'giro di poltrone' che vedrebbe Clemente Mimun passare dalla guida del principale tg Mediaset a quella del Tg1 quando - con il nuovo Cda Rai - ci sara' il prevedibile riassetto dei vertici di reti e testate di viale Mazzini.

Rottura con Mediaset, Mentana sfoga i suoi capricci

2009-02-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

Enrico Mentana rompe il silenzio. A 48 ore dall'annuncio delle dimissioni (fatto la sera della morte di Eluana Englaro) immediatamente accettate da Mediaset, che ha anche sospeso Matrix, il giornalista conduttore si sfoga e in una lettera inviata al direttore di Libero Vittorio Feltri dà la sua versione dei fatti. «Se Mediaset vuol cacciarmi comunque, che lo faccia: basta che non si nasconda dietro i cavilli»: è uno dei passaggi della lettera. Nella missiva, che è stata anticipata, Mentana spiega «come sono andate davvero le cose» e come le ha vissute «prima persona». Il giornalista racconta che la sera della morte di Eluana non chiese lo spostamento in prime time di Matrix' al posto del Grande Fratello. Mentana sottolinea che fu lui ad avvisare il direttore generale per l'informazione Mediaset Mauro Crippa, il quale gli chiese se era in grado di andare in onda prima e che poi lo chiamò anche il direttore di Canale 5 chiedendo la stessa diponibilità. Il giornalista a quel punto fece tre proposte: «Aprire nel programma (il Grande Fratello, ndr) una o due finestre del Tg5; oppure inserire attorno alle 22 dieci minuti di Matrix; o infine chiudere il Grande Fratello non alle 24, com'era previsto, ma un'ora prima, così da trasmettere una puntata di Matrix in grado di essere seguita da un pubblico meno sparuto». Tutte e tre furono bocciate, spiega Mentana. Seguì l'annuncio delle dimissioni. «Non sono inquadrabile tra gli adepti della tv del dolore, né mi sono accanito con trasmissioni su trasmissioni intorno al caso di Eluana: anzi - scrive Mentana -, negli oltre tre anni di vita di Matrix me ne sono occupato una sola volta, venerdì scorso, quando la vicenda era diventata un affare di Stato per lo scontro tra governo e Quirinale».

Tragedia nel cross, muore Lusk

2009-02-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

Tragedia nel mondo del motocross, il campione statunitense della specialità "freestyle", Jeremy Lusk è morto in Costarica per le conseguenze di un trauma cranico riportato in una caduta mentre eseguiva figure acrobatiche nel corso di "X Knight", competizione di sport estremi organizzata allo stadio Ricardo Saprissa di San Josè, devanti a 24.000 spettatori. L'incidente è accaduto nello scorso fine settimana, il decssso risale invece a martedì.

Lusk, che aveva 24 anni, originario di San Diego, era entrato subito in coma. Nel corso della stessa manifestazione, l'anno scorso, aveva vinto il primo premio. Era stato recentemente premiato come "miglior centauro FMX" del 2008.

Champagne, aragoste e caviale per il compleanno di Mugabe

2009-02-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

Compleanno pantagruelico e vergognoso per l'intramontabile dittatore dello Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe. Mentre l'Oms, l'Organizzazione mondiale della Sanità, chiede aiuto a mezzo mondo e si arrende davanti alla strage provocata dal colera (3400 morti, 69.593 contagiati), il vecchio combattente si prepara a festeggiare i suoi 85 anni con un menu fastoso.

Secondo la lista ottenuta dal Times di Londra, tramite una mail spedita da un giornalista locale, il banchetto fissato fra due sabati prevede duemila bottiglie di champagne, 8 mila aragoste, 100 chili di gamberi, 4 mila porzioni di caviale, 8 mila scatole di cioccolatini.

La cena, naturalmente, è a pagamento. Per il suo successo, si legge nello stesso comunicato diffuso negli ambienti governativi, gli ospiti sono stati invitati a versare un contributo in denaro. Dai 45 ai 55 mila dollari, a seconda dei posti a tavola più o meno vicini al presidente, che dovranno essere versati sul conto bancario dell'organizzazione giovanile del partito al potere Zanu, chiamata "Movimento del 21 febbraio", data del compleanno di Mugabe. I prodotti dovranno arrivare dall'estero. Anche volendo, le aragoste non si trovano nel paese.

L'anno scorso la festa del compleanno del dittatore è costata 1,2 milioni di dollari. Dollari veri, americani, non quelli finti, ormai carta straccia, che la gente si affanna a trasportare dentro sacchi di plastica per comprarsi una pagnotta al mercato. Il nipote del presidente, Patrick Zhuwawo, ha pensato di superare il record e si è dato da fare compilando personalmente la lista. Non si sa se il menu ha fatto il giro del paese. Ai 7 milioni di disoccupati, quasi il 90 per cento della forza lavoro, assillati da un'inflazione che ha raggiunto i 300 milioni per cento, sembrerà uno scherzo. O meglio: l'ennesimo schiaffo di un padre-padrone che non si rassegna ad affamare il suo popolo. Brutto battesimo per il nuovo governo, con il giuramento del primo ministro Morgan Tsvangirai, leader dell'opposizione.

CORTE DEI CONTI: ALLARME CORRUZIONE

2009-02-11T11:57:00.001-08:00

Allarme corruzione nella pubblica amministrazione da parte della Corte dei Conti. "I controlli interni ed esterni sull'amministrazione non sono pienamente adeguati, vi e' un'attuale situazione di scarsa loro efficacia, di pochezza di effetti concreti", ha sottolineato il presidente della magistratura contabile Tullio Lazzaro, per il quale "occorre potenziare e irrobustire i controlli, renderli effettivi nello svolgersi e concreti negli effetti. Nel campo dell'amministrazione , a un maggior e migliore uso dei controlli, corrisponde simmetricamente un minore ricorso al codice penale".

Oklahoma: tornado uccide 15 persone

2009-02-11T11:54:00.000-08:00

OKLAHOMA CITY - Un tornado ha ucciso almeno 15 persone a Lone Grove, in Oklahoma. Sono state tre le trombe d'aria che hanno colpito la zona durante la notte e una ha investito le abitazioni ferendo anche altre 14 persone. Nel centro degli Stato Uniti sono rari questi eventi atmosferici all'inizio di febbraio, ma altre trombe d'aria hanno causato ulteriori tre feriti leggeri a Oklahoma City e 10 mila abitazioni sono rimaste senza energia elettrica.

COME UN TRENO IN CORSA - Lo sceriffo della contea di Carter ha detto che la cittadina di Lone Grove, 5 mila abitanti, è stata «devastata» dalla tromba d'aria del diametro di circa 800 metri. «Non c'è rimasto nulla: solo lamiere contorte, auto rovesciate e scaraventate sugli alberi. C'era un rumore come un treno in corsa che ci veniva addosso», ha detto un testimone. Nella notte sono state sospese le ricerche dei sopravvissuti: il buio era totale e c'erano troppi pericoli anche per i soccorritori.

NEOLOGISMI

2009-02-10T01:31:00.000-08:00

* ABBECEDARIO - Espressione di sollievo di chi s' è accorto che c' è anche Dario

* ACCOZZAGLIA - Gruppo di ragazze d'aspetto poco gradevole

* ADDENDO: urlo della folla quando a Nairobi stai per pestare una merda

* ALLUCINAZIONE - Violento colpo inferto col ditone del piede

* ALUNNO: esclamazione sfuggita a Papa Leone all'apparire di Attila

* APPENDICITE: attaccapanni per scimmie

* ASSILLO: scuola materna sarda

* AUTOCLAVE - Armi automatiche dell'eta della pietra

* BACCANALE - Frutto selvatico usato una volta come supposta

* BALESTRA - Sala ginnica per gente di colore

* BASILICA: chiesa aromatica

* BIGODINO - Doppio orgasmo

* BUCANEVE: precisa pisciata maschile invernale

* CACHI: domanda che rivolgi ad uno chinato dietro un cespuglio

* CALABRONE - Grosso abitante di Cosenza

* CALAMARI - Molluschi responsabili della bassa marea

* CAPPUCCETTO ROSSO - Profilattico sovietico

* CARIATIDE - Antica statua raffigurante persona col mal di denti

* CATALESSI - Catalani condannati alla pentola a pressione

* CERBOTTANA - Cervo femmina di facili costumi

* CERVINO - Domanda dei clienti all'oste romano

* CIAMBELLANO - Colui che ha il più bel buco di culo del reame

* CONCLAVE: riunione di cardinali violenti e trogloditi

* CONTORSIONISTA - Ebreo arrotolato

* COREOGRAFO - Studioso delle mappe della Corea

* CUCULO: gay balbuziente

* CULMINARE - Fare uso di supposte esplosive

* CURRICULUM - Gara di finocchi ai tempi dell'antica Roma

* DISSENTERIA - Attitudine a dir sempre di no

* DOPING - Pratica anglosassone del rimandare a più tardi

* ECCEDENTE: frase di un dentista latinista dopo un'estrazione

* ELETTROPOMPA: novità bolognese a luci rosse

* EMPORIO: fratello di Giorgio Armani

* EQUIDISTANTI - Cavalli in lontananza

* EQUINOZIO (1) - Zio del cavallo

* EQUINOZIO (2) - Cavallo che non lavora

* EUFRATE - Monaco mesopotamico

* FAHRENHEIT - Tirar tardi la notte

* FANTASMA - Malattia dell'apparato respiratorio che colpisce i forti consumatori di aranciata

* FOCACCIA - Foca estremamente malvagia

* FONETICA - Disciplina che regola il comportamento degli asciugacapelli

* GAIEZZA: gioia omosessuale

* GESTAZIONE - Gravidanza di moglie di ferroviere

* GIULIVA - Slogan di chi è vessato dall'Imposta sul Valore Aggiunto

* INCUBATRICE - Macchina fabbricatrice di sogni terribili

* INTERPRETATO - Posto tra due preti

* LATITANTI - Poligoni con moltissime facce

* LORD - Signore inglese molto sporco

* LUX: primo tipo in assoluto di FIAT

* MAIALETTO - Animale che non dorme mai

* MAREMMA: nome di una famosa maiala

* MARRON GLACES -Testicoli sotto zero

* MASCHILISTA - Elenco di persone di sesso maschile

* MELODIA - Preghiera di una vergine

* MESSA IN PIEGA - Funzione religiosa eseguita da un prete in curva

* NEOLAUREATO - Punto nero della pelle che ha fatto l'università

* OBIETTORE - Ottico fabbricante di obiettivi che se è particolarmente serio viene chiamato "obiettore di coscienza"

* OPOSSUM - Marsupiale americano possibilista

* PARTITI: movimenti politici che nonostante il nome sono ancora qui

* PENTIMENTO - Un doppio mento con 5 pieghe

* PIUMONE: richieste di sporcaccioni veneti mai sazi di sesso

* PRETERINTENZIONALE - Un prete che lo fa apposta

* PREVENIRE - Soffrire di eiaculazione precoce

* RADIARE - Colpire violentemente usando una radio

* RAZZISMO - Scienza che studia i propulsori a reazione

* RAZZISTA - Fabbricatore di missili

* REDUCE - Sovrano con tendenze di estrema destra

* RIMEMBRARE - L'atto di rimettere al suo posto il "coso" a chi e' stato evirato (vocabolo coniato da J.W.Bobbitt)

* RUBINETTO - Gemma preziosa di piccole dimensioni

* SALADINO - Biscotto salato con il raffreddore

* SALAME: tipo di figura che il maiale non vorrebbe mai fare

* SALMONE -Cadavere di obeso

* SANCULOTTO - Patrono degli omosessuali

* SBRONZI:ubriachi di Riace

* SCIMUNITO - Attrezzato per gli sport invernali

* SCORFANO - Pesce che ha perduto i genitori

* SMARRIMENTO - Perdita del mento

* SOMMARIO - Indicativo presente del verbo "Essere Mario"

* SPAVENTO - Società per azioni eolica

* STRAFOTTENTE - Dicesi di persona di grandi qualita amatorie

* SUCCESSO - Posizione da toilette

* TACCHINO - Parte della scarpina

* TELEPATIA -Malattia che colpisce chi guarda troppo la TV

* TEMPOREGGIARE - Scoreggiare andando a tempo (tipico dei musicisti poco educati)

* TONNELLATA - Marmellata di tonno

* TRANSETTO - Brasiliano di bassa statura

* TROIKA: Donna russa di facili costumi

* UGELLO - Volgarismo in gergo negro per "pene"

* UFFICIO - Luogo dove si sbuffa

* VERDETTO -Cosmetico verde (a differenza del rossetto che è rosso)

* VIBRATORI - Macchina per vibromassaggio bovino

* VIGILIA - Donna vigile urbano

* ZONA DISCO - Parcheggio per gli UFO

BARZELLETTA CROCIATI

2009-02-10T01:30:00.001-08:00

E' una grigia giornata d'autunno. I migliori cavalieri del regno stanno per partire per la Crociata.
Uno di loro si accomiata dal suo miglior amico: "Mia moglie e' una delle donne piu' belle del regno. Voglio che nessuno la insidi. Pertanto, siccome tu sei il mio piu' caro e fidato amico, ti lascio la chiave della sua cintura di castita' affinche' tu la usi se io non ritornero' dalla Crociata".
I cavalieri partono, ma non hanno fatto un miglio che dalla cima della collina che sovrasta la citta' vedono arrivare al galoppo un uomo a cavallo. Quando questi si e' avvicinato abbastanza il cavaliere nota che si tratta del suo migliore amico che con voce ancora affannata per la corsa gli grida: "Ehi, mi hai lasciato la chiave sbagliata!!".

BARZELLETTE CARABINIERI

2009-02-10T01:00:00.000-08:00

Un carabiniere rientra a casa e trova la moglie a letto tutta... sudata e ansimante.
Lei dice: "Corri subito a chiamare il medico, penso di avere un principio di infarto"
Il carabiniere si precipita verso l'uscita e sulla porta incontra il figlioletto che gli dice:
"Papà ho paura! C'è un uomo nudo in casa nascosto nell'armadio".
Il carabiniere torna indietro immediatamente, apre l'armadio e ci trova de ntro il suo migliore amico, lo guarda e gli dice:
"Cazzo, Luigi, c'è mia moglie che ha un infarto e tu ti metti qui a spaventare i bambini?!"

LA TRAGICOMICA STORIA DI CESARE BATTISTI CRIMINALE ITALIANO, DA NON CONFONDERE CON L'EROE DELLA PATRIA

2009-02-02T16:48:00.000-08:00

Cesare Battisti. Che nome importante da portare in Italia, continuamente confrontato con il colto eroe e padre della patria giustiziato dagli austriaci. Meglio quindi portare il proprio nome prima in francia, poi in brasile, ma anche qui pare non lo vogliano. Con tutto il rispetto per le vittime di battisti e i loro familiari, il lato comico è nel bagno che la gauche-caviar rischia di prendere difendendo questo criminale da strada. Ci limiteremo a fornire qualche link preso dal web, tanto per dare un'idea del tipo in questione. Sono molti i terroristi che vivono all'estero ricchi e felici, grazie ai proventi delle rapine, camuffate da "lotta sociale": cari studenti che protestate in piazza e parlate di politica "estrema", ragionate su questo fatto, 'sti qua sono dei gran furbacchioni, magari quelli che finiscono in galera in italia riescono pure a fare le vittime. Cercate nella cronaca quelli che vivono ai tropici......

Veramente esilarante è la sua descrizione su wikipedia francese, nella parte più alta della pagina http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Battisti_(1954) pare una vittima del sistema. continuate a leggere, grazie al cielo wikipedia conferma la sua serietà, seppur in extremis, nel resto del fogliettone. Andando avanti, il testo diventa spietato, riportando con grande lucidità l'affaire battisti, suddiviso in periodi: italiano, francese, brasiliano.

Buon divertimento

SALERNO-REGGIO CALABRIA: GENIO MILITARE ULTIMA SOLUZIONE AL POSTO DEI FIGLI DI MADRE IGNOTA DELLA NDRANGHETA?

2009-02-02T15:44:00.000-08:00

Ed eccomi a febbraio del 2009, a viaggiare come sempre sulla salerno-reggio calabria (per lavoro, non per andare a fare il bagno al mare). Schivo qualche frana, rallento dove l'asfalto smotta, emulo i piloti di formula uno evitando le voragini (ci vorrà pure qualche simpatico diversivo nelle lunghe ore su questa "strada"), recito un'ave maria per i poveri ragazzi deceduti, investiti dalla recente frana, alle cui famiglie va il nostro più triste e commosso saluto (poteva succedere a noi, padri di famiglia che ci guadagniamo il pane su questa mulattiera). La sensazione che i nuovi mega-cantieri e mega-tunnel fossero una mega-truffa era già dentro di me, suffragata da una sola certezza: dopo ogni mega-opera pubblica rimane solo la manutenzione. Il bello è proprio la manutenzione, fasulla, suprema arte coltivata da decenni dalle calabre ditte. Io, da perfetto agricoltore del sud, da tempo ho capito il trucco: le mega-ditte del nord ottengono i mega-appalti grazie alla loro "verginità", svolgono il lavoro a regola d'arte, dopodichè, saggiamente, se ne ritornano al nord sfanculando la salerno reggio con tutte le sue complicazioni (e fanno bene). A quel punto, alla prima gelata, sull'asfalto si formano crepe, che diventano, a causa del traffico, voragini. E qui.....BINGO!!!! interviene l'impresa locale addetta alla manutenzione. Così ritorniamo alla singola corsia, croce di noi poveri peones dell'autostrada. La bravura della ndrangheta consiste nel far stendere, alla velocità di un metro quadro a bimestre, massimo un millimetro di asfalto. Poi tolgono la corsia singola, con grande soddisfazione della politica locale. Chissà perchè, dopo quindici giorni il coraggioso millimetro d'asfalto si sgretola, e il giochino ricomincia daccapo, con enormi costi in termini di carburante per chi si sorbisce l'ingorgo (sapete quanto consuma un tir? informatevi...). Ebbene, chi ci rimette è solo il sud italia, che già di per sè non naviga nell'oro. Allora, invece di continuare a farci soffrire, perchè non facciamo intervenire il genio militare al posto di questi figli di puttana della ndrangheta ed i loro collusi, nella ristrutturazione del tratto salerno-reggio calabria?. Un celebre palazzinaro romano, re della cronaca più recente, direbbe che la ndrangheta, in questo caso, "fa il frocio cor culo nostro". Quale governo potrebbe mai prendere la decisione di mettere in campo il genio militare?. Nella certezza che viaggiare "all'europea" sulla salerno-reggio calabria rimarrà solo un sogno, io con molti amici e colleghi preparo le valigie in vista di una nuova enorme emigrazione, consapevole che la questione meridionale non troverà mai soluzione, e il sud italia rimarrà in pasto alle belve, coadiuvate dal nuovo federalismo.

INCROCI ROTONDE e SEMAFORI

2009-01-31T08:15:00.000-08:00

Finalmente è venuto a galla lo scandalo dei semafori taroccati, ora sappiamo tutti quanto costa impiantare un semaforo, gestirlo, quante mazzette dare agli amministratori pubblici. La cosa più buffa, però, è che i semafori nella stragrande maggioranza dei casi complicano il traffico stradale. Grazie al recente scandalo sappiamo come mai le rotonde stentano a diffondersi nel nostro povero Paese.